Marine Le Pen banned from running for office after embezzlement conviction

This decision means that, barring a successful appeal, Le Pen to enter the presidential race despite her status as a narrow favourite according to the polls.

The former leader of the far-right party, which her father Jean-Marie Le Pen (a noted Holocaust denier) founded in 1972, left the courtroom in indignation before the full extent of her sentence was read out.

Le Pen has been the object of both intense admiration and contempt in France for her staunch anti-immigration views and what many see as the promotion of xenophobia and antisemitism. But the party has been increasingly popular in France; in June last year, the National Rally won the European Parliament elections in a landslide with 31.4 per cent of the votes.

Despite Le Pen’s controversial position, her sentencing has caused outrage among the French right who claim it will trigger a democratic crisis.

In response to the news, Jordan Bardella, who succeeded Le Pen as party leader, said on X this morning: “Today, it is not only Marine Le Pen who is being unjustly condemned: it is French democracy that is being executed.”

Le Pen has also attracted support from right-wing politicians across the EU in the wake of the verdict.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban tweeted “Je suis Marine [I am Marine]”, echoing the “Je suis Charlie” slogan popularised in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in 2015.

Likewise, Italy’s deputy PM Matteo Salvini called the ruling a “declaration of war” by Brussels, while Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders said he was “shocked” by the decision.