Tuesday evening, Marine Le Pen was interviewed on the evening news of TF1, the most-watched generalist channel in France. She wanted to launch the big headline: "Tonight I am the candidate for the presidential elections." Despite the forcefulness of her announcement, the presenter Gilles Bouleau did not make it easy for her. Fifteen minutes of conversation in which the journalist's pressure became evident. Much persistence without aggressiveness. Bouleau was unusually demanding in his request for explanations from the new candidate. It is worth highlighting an important aspect of that broadcast. Around half past one in the afternoon, the Paris Court of Appeal made public the resolution of the sentence, confirming Le Pen's guilt in a diversion of funds from the European Parliament. However, it reduced her disqualification penalty and allowed her to run in the 2027 presidential election. Only six hours had passed when Marine Le Pen sat at the news desk in front of millions of viewers. Bouleau began by asking Le Pen about her first reaction upon hearing the verdict. “J’étais heureuse”, she replied. “I was happy,” she answered curtly. The response caused perplexity given the confirmation of her guilt. The presenter pointed out the contradiction. Le Pen used a far from innocent discursive nuance: “I am happy that the court has reinstated my eligibility.” She modified the mental framework as if justice were restoring a kind of legitimate right that had been unduly taken from her. She transformed it so that the verdict seemed favorable. While the journalist struggled to separate the conviction from eligibility, Le Pen strove to reduce the discourse to the latter aspect. Bouleau reminded her of the two different judicial bodies that agreed on the guilty verdict. He always questioned Le Pen's assumptions: when she spoke of the appeal to have to wear an electronic bracelet as if it were going to succeed favorably, he pointed out to her that this was only a hypothesis. The journalist always emphasized the confirmed facts to differentiate them from her aspirations. He also forced her to specify her arguments with the aim of implicating her in front of the audience. He did not ask for her opinions and always balanced her optimism with the most pragmatic reality. It was an irrefutable way to highlight the candidate's contradictions. Bouleau made an effort not to fall into the guest's narrative framework. He acted as a counterbalance without arguing. He forced Le Pen to confront the political and judicial cost, repeating twice that she should weigh the pros and cons of her candidacy in the face of evasiveness. He demanded a political reflection exercise that went beyond the simple announcement of the candidacy. What the presenter was doing between the lines was to bring out the personal interests of the guest, and, above all, to point out to the audience the implications of Le Pen's decision so that viewers could interpret the medium and long-term political consequences. A great duel out of simple professional responsibility.

After French justice has reduced Marine Le Pen's sentence in the case of embezzlement of European funds, the leader of the National Rally (RN) has announced that she will run again in the presidential elections, which will be held in April 2027. Luc Rouban, director of the National Centre for Scientific Research at the Centre for Political Research of Sciences Po, analyzes in conversation with ARA the consequences of the ruling for the far-right party.The Court of Appeal insists on the need to respect "the elector's freedom of choice". Can we speak of a judicial system that, in the face of political and media pressure from the Le Pen affair, adjusts its doctrine on the ineligibility of convicted political officials?

The far-right French leader Marine Le Pen will be a candidate in the 2027 presidential elections. It was unlikely that after the forceful sentence that condemned her to four years in prison and five years of disqualification in March 2025 for embezzlement of public funds could run for president, but an unexpected judicial plot twist will make it possible. "The French will have the freedom to choose. They will have the last word," Le Pen assured this evening in an interview on TF1 in which she announced that she will run for president despite being convicted.The leader of the National Rally also stated that she will appeal to the Court of Cassation – the equivalent of the Spanish Supreme Court – the sentence that has convicted her, a fact that adds uncertainty to her presidential candidacy. If the high court ends up confirming the verdict, Le Pen will have to campaign and participate in the presidential elections under house arrest and with an electronic ankle bracelet. If she were elected president, she would move to the Elysée with the electronic bracelet. It would be an absurd situation with no precedents.French justice has made public this Tuesday a tailor-made ruling so that Le Pen can be a candidate in the presidential elections. The Paris Court of Appeal has confirmed the first-instance conviction, but has shortened her prison and disqualification period, which left the door open for Le Pen to run in the elections, scheduled for the spring of next year. The court has imposed a sentence of three years in prison, of which only one is firm.House arrest

However, Le Pen will not enter any penitentiary center: she will have to serve the 12 months under house arrest with an electronic bracelet. The convicted person, however, could request a reduction of the house arrest, and if the judge accepts the request, she would only have to serve six months. In any case, if the future candidate appeals the decision, it is most likely that the sentence will be suspended until the Court of Cassation rules. It is expected to do so in January 2027 and, a priori, it would be then when the far-right leader would have to begin her house arrest. The high court only rules on the legality of the sentence, not on the merits.Regarding the disqualification – which is the key to Marine Le Pen's political future – the court has sentenced her to 45 months of disqualification, of which only 15 are final. As she was convicted in the first instance on March 31, 2025, she has already served the disqualification sentence. Legally, she has a clear path to be a candidate. This is the major new development in Tuesday's decision. The number two of RN –Jordan Bardella is the formal president– has benefited from a recent reform aimed at alleviating prison overcrowding, which provides that a part of prison sentences remain suspended and do not have to be served within penitentiary centers. But the court has also taken into account the political situation and its desire not to interfere in a presidential election. The president of the court, Michèle Agi, has made it clear, emphasizing that the ruling has taken into account the guarantee of "the elector's freedom of choice, an indispensable condition for the expression of democratic suffrage." And she added: "Ignoring this would violate the principle of freedom of candidacies, an essential condition for the expression […] of universal democratic suffrage." In other words, it acknowledges that the ruling has been issued in such a way that Le Pen, despite being convicted, can be a candidate.Bracelet campaign

Before the ruling became public, Le Pen had conditioned her candidacy on not being convicted of any crime and not wearing an electronic bracelet. "When one is a candidate for the presidential elections, one must have absolute freedom of movement and cannot depend on a magistrate to authorize you to go to a rally in Romorantin or to a market in Hénin-Beaumont," Marine Le Pen said last week on the LCI channel. The electronic bracelet greatly limits the movements of the convicted person: a movement perimeter is established and they must comply with house arrest schedules.

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The far right is not making as much progress as it would like across France, but it is gaining new municipalities and strengthening its position in Northern Catalonia. National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen's party, already secured the mayorship of Perpignan a week ago with an absolute majority in the first round, and this Sunday it won in the second round of the municipal elections In Ribesaltes and Cañoses, in Roussillon. The far-right politician Steve Fortel also won in Elna, and Gilles Foxonet, another far-right politician, retained his position in Baixàs. "It's a lesson for the future of Catalonia and Spain: simply calling them fascists isn't enough," former mayor of Elna Nicolas Garcia told ARA. "We Catalans can't win," added Forques councilor Jordi Vera, who emphasized that 60% of the population comes from outside Northern Catalonia.

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The first round of municipal elections held this Sunday in France confirms the advance of the far right. Final results will not be known until next Sunday, but Marine Le Pen's party, the National Rally (RN), has managed to advance to the second round in the vast majority of municipalities where it ran and will compete to win in city halls where it has not yet governed, such as Marseille, France's second-largest city, Nice, and Toulon. "It is a huge victory for our movement," Le Pen declared in a message to X.

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The French return to the polls this Sunday to elect their local representatives. France is holding the first round of municipal elections, votes that don't usually carry national weight. However, this time, the proximity of the presidential elections—scheduled for spring 2027—will mean that the results will be interpreted through the lens of national politics. Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN), a party that has traditionally had a weak local presence, wants the municipal elections to be its springboard to the Élysée Palace. Le Pen and her right-hand man—and likely presidential candidate if she is definitively barred from running—Jordan Bardella, want to translate their strong showing in the recent legislative and European elections into more mayoralties. This won't be easy because the RN's limited local presence means it can't field candidates in a significant number of municipalities. There's an anecdote that perfectly illustrates the situation: Bardella won't be able to vote for a candidate from the party he leads because Garches, the municipality of 17,000 inhabitants where he lives on the outskirts of Paris, doesn't have a candidate from Réagrupament Nacional.

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French far-right leader Marine Le Pen returns to the dock this Tuesday in a trial that will shape her political future. Le Pen was sentenced in March 2025 to four years in prison – only two of which were served –, five years of disqualification and a fine of 100,000 euros for misappropriation of European Parliament funds in the case of fraud in parliamentary assistant contracts. Unlike the prison sentence, the court of first instance ruled for the immediate application of the disqualification, even though the sentence was not yet final. De factoThe leader of the National Rally (RN) was barred from the 2027 presidential race. Le Pen appealed the sentence, and the appeal hearing, which will last a month, begins this Tuesday. It represents her last chance to run for president.

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Once again, the European Union has been unable to forge a unified and coherent position in the face of a US military operation in Venezuela that violates all rules of international law. So far, the majority response has been to somehow endorse Maduro's capture and then ask the White House to democratize the country as quickly as possible, as if Donald Trump had acted in the name of universal democratic principles and not out of his own geopolitical and economic interests. In fact, many of those who rushed to celebrate Maduro's downfall on Saturday are now watching with perplexity as Washington may have reached some kind of agreement with his second-in-command, Delcy Rodríguez, to allow her to remain in power. Indeed, this is the situation on the ground in Venezuela.

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President Emmanuel Macron finds himself at the most critical moment since he took up residence in the Élysée Palace. After seeing five prime ministers come and go in just two years, the situation is becoming unsustainable. He hasn't spoken publicly for days—his explanations for the entire chaos on Monday, when Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu resigned, were given in a short press release—but his entourage has leaked to the press that if the parties don't agree to form a government that won't be immediately censured, he "will assume his responsibilities." In other words, he will call early legislative elections.

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Emmanuel Macron's second term as President of France is turning into an ordeal that, unless significant changes occur, could end with the presidency being handed to Marine Le Pen or someone from her party. The current situation in the country is Kafkaesque. Macron is trying to convince Sébastien Lecornu to reconsider and reverse his decision to resign as Prime Minister just 24 hours after presenting his government and less than a month after taking office. If the resignation is confirmed, Lecornu will be the fifth Prime Minister to resign from Macron's second term. Before him, Élisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal, Michel Barnier, and François Bayrou have all failed. France is currently immersed in a serious institutional crisis that appears to be entrenched and from which there is no clear way out.

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François Bayrou's government's days are numbered. If the French Prime Minister still held out any hope of being able to overcome the vote of no confidence that will be submitted to the National Assembly next Monday, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen made it clear this Tuesday that she will let the government fall. "There has been no miracle," said Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally and Le Pen's right-hand man, after meeting with the Prime Minister alongside Le Pen.

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The global far-right alliance once again demonstrated its strength yesterday at the rally in support of Marine Le Pen held in Paris. The event, which was less well-attended than planned by the organizers, had been called in protest of the ruling that condemns the leader of the National Regrouping (RN) party to four years in prison and five years of disqualification for embezzlement related to fraudulent contracts in the European Parliament, which would prevent her from running in the next presidential elections. If last week, immediately upon the announcement of the sentence, Le Pen had already received the unconditional support of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and JD Vance, who insisted on the witch hunt against freedom of expression that, in their opinion, is taking place in Europe, yesterday, Santiago Abascal, Javier Milei, and Viktor Orbe gave her heat with videos during the event.

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In case it wasn't clear enough in recent days, Marine Le Pen said it again this Sunday: Despite the five-year ban that will hardly allow him to run in the 2027 presidential elections, does not intend to throw in the towel. "Rest assured: I will not give up. This [judicial] decision has trampled on my people, my country, and my honor," the leader of the National Rally (RN) exclaimed this Sunday before thousands of supporters gathered in Paris to support her. "We do not resign, we do not bow down," she warned.

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The ruling condemning Marine Le Pen to four years in prison and five years of disqualification—which will make it unlikely she will be able to run in the 2027 presidential elections—has changed everything. Since a Paris court On Monday, the far-right leader was sentenced for embezzlement of public funds.Le Pen has abandoned her moderate rhetoric and has dedicated herself to attacking state institutions with unprecedented vehemence and anger. This week, the leader of the National Regrouping (RN) party accused "the system" of using a "nuclear bomb" to prevent her from running for president, and the party called for street mobilizations. "If they're using such a powerful weapon against us, it means we're about to win the election," she asserted, referring to the nuclear bomb.

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The day after Marine Le Pen was sentenced to five years of immediate disqualification For embezzlement of public funds, French Prime Minister François Bayrou expressed his openness to reviewing the law that allowed the far-right leader to be disqualified. "In law, any criminal decision with serious consequences must be subject to appeal," Bayrou stated this Tuesday in the National Assembly. The prime minister asserted that the law raises "questions" and opened the door to "reflection."

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The day after Marine Le Pen was sentenced to five years of immediate disqualification For embezzlement of public funds, Le Pen's far-right party called for a "peaceful" mobilization. The party has called for a large street rally in Paris this Sunday, open to the public. "We are showing that the will of the people is stronger with a peaceful and popular mobilization," urged Jordan Bardella, Le Pen's right-hand woman and a likely presidential candidate if the leader remains disqualified following appeals against the ruling.

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Has the time come for Donald Trump and the European far right to openly align themselves? The French justice system has sidelined Marine Le Pen, just when she seemed close to reaching the peak of the Fifth Republic—the presidency—and the candidate's European colleagues are up in arms. The case of embezzlement is so obvious—European money used in Brussels for contracts and current expenses of the party in France—that legal criticism has little scope, and the far right has already jumped directly to challenging the system. Democratic scandal, institutional coup d'état, is the refrain resonating throughout Orbán's Europe—"I am Marine"—and the far right, who daily follow the Trumpian ritual of disavowing democratic legality.

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Champions of democracy like Putin, Orbán, Salvini, Elon Musk, and that sad figure called Abascal came out in force to deplore the court ruling against Marine Le Pen, leader of the French National Rally party. They immediately turned Le Pen into a victim of the system: they use harsh words like judicial scandal, covert coup d'état either liquidation of democracy, as the far right always does when it clashes with justice or, simply, with the norms of representative democracy. They are the same ones who applaud or promote the lawfare, The dirty judicial war against political adversaries, through judges or prosecutors willing to act in vain: then they find that justice must be final, and that any debate about judicial prevarication is an attack on democracy. We, the subjects of the Kingdom of Spain, have experienced all of this.

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Today, two very important pieces of justice news. In France, Marine Le Pen has been disqualified for fraud in the hiring of assistants to the European Parliament.

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Dominique Sistach is a jurist and sociologist, professor at the University of Perpignan Via Domícia, and an expert on political radicalism. In a conversation with ARA, he analyzes the possible consequences. of the conviction of Marine Le Pen.

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