Joan of Arc in Marine’s armour …again by Nadine Moreau

France does not need another saint. It needs a political movement that stops confusing national pride with national paranoia. Marine Le Pen launching her presidential campaign in Orléans, wrapping herself in the symbolic armour of Joan of Arc. When politicians begin borrowing their legitimacy from medieval saints, one should immediately check what they are trying to smuggle into the present.

Joan of Arc liberated Orléans from English occupation. She became a symbol of resistance, sacrifice and French national identity. Her story belongs to a complicated history of faith, courage, tragedy and national mythology. Marine Le Pen, however, has discovered something considerably more convenient in this historical inheritance: a magnificent political costume.

The symbolism is not accidental. Joan of Arc has long occupied the French nationalist imagination, offering an emotionally irresistible combination of patriotism, victimhood and heroic resistance against foreign domination. For Le Pen, this is political gold. Why bother constructing a convincing vision of France's future when you can borrow the emotional machinery of its past?

The problem is that France in 2027 is not medieval Orléans, and the enemies of contemporary French society cannot simply be assembled into a convenient procession of foreign invaders.

Le Pen's political project has spent decades transforming anxiety into electoral capital. Immigration becomes an existential threat. European integration becomes an assault on sovereignty. Cultural diversity becomes evidence of national decline. The familiar promise is that France can recover its greatness by recovering its supposed purity.

This is nationalism with an enormous rear-view mirror and remarkably little imagination. The strategy is particularly cynical because Joan of Arc's historical significance cannot be reduced to the ideological property of the French far right. She belongs to French history, certainly, but her courage and sacrifice are not exclusive possessions of any political party. Turning her into a campaign mascot is less an act of historical reverence than an attempt to monopolise patriotism.

And that is precisely where the danger begins. When the far right claims exclusive ownership of the nation, everybody else becomes a questionable guest in their own country. Citizens with different origins, different religions, different political convictions or different interpretations of French identity are gradually pushed towards the margins of an increasingly narrow national definition.

The genius of this political theatre is that it makes exclusion appear patriotic and prejudice sound like historical responsibility. France deserves better than this theatrical resurrection of medieval nationalism. It deserves a serious discussion about immigration, economic inequality, public services, security, secularism and the future of European democracy. It deserves political leadership capable of addressing contemporary problems without manufacturing imaginary civilisational wars.

Joan of Arc fought for a France that did not yet exist in its modern form. Marine Le Pen campaigns for a France that exists largely as an ideological fantasy, populated by nostalgic certainties and conveniently selected enemies.

The difference matters. A nation is not a museum exhibit, a bloodline or a religious monument. It is a living political community, constantly negotiating its identity through democracy, citizenship and shared responsibilities.

If Marine Le Pen wants to invoke Joan of Arc, she should remember that history is considerably more complicated than a campaign poster. France does not need another political saint. It needs fewer political exorcists.