Return of the Guillotine? Le Pen Hints at Referendum on Death Penalty in France

Populist presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has hinted at the possibility of a referendum that could see the death penalty return to France.

The populist Rassemblement National (National Rally) candidate had already promised the French people that a “referendum revolution” will take place in France should she be elected as the country’s first female president, which would see sweeping changes in national policy all put to the public vote.

Now, according to a report by L’Indépendant, Le Pen has elaborated on the issues that could come up in such referendums, accepting that a general vote on the return of the death penalty would certainly be on the cards.

“The question of the death penalty could go through a referendum, everything could go through a referendum,” the right-wing populist is reported as saying, noting that there was “no forbidden debate in a democracy”.

Such a move would set up a clash with the European Union and European Court of Human Rights, however, with both institutions banning capital punishment.

While Le Pen seemed lukewarm about the actual possibility of the death penalty returning to France, rival candidate Emmanuel Macron seems to have been enraged at the very possibility that a referendum could be held on the matter.

Lashing out at Le Pen, the incumbent French president denounced the populist as an authoritarian who would only be against the death penalty should she be able to “put people in prison for life”.

Macron has also come out against Le Pen’s promise to put an end to wind farms covering France, a promise which, if implemented, would see existing infrastructure dismantled — something he described as an “aberration”.

“In Madame Le Pen’s project, I was amazed to discover… that hundreds of millions of euros would be spent dismantling existing wind turbines, which, I must say, is a use of the money of the taxpayer which I question,” Macron said regarding the possibility of a moratorium on wind energy.

“Getting out of renewables is a complete aberration, we would be the only country in the world to do so,” he claimed.

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