Le Pen’s Maga-style martyrdom is new risk in France

French elections often bring shocks. The 2012 presidential vote might have gone differently without Mr Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s perp walk. Mr Emmanuel Macron might never have stepped into the Elysee without Mr Francois Fillon’s downfall over corruption charges. And now a bombshell has landed that will reshape the 2027 race: Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been

convicted of embezzlement,

with the court barring her from standing for office for five years.

What makes this scandal different is not, as Ms Le Pen’s defenders – including Mr Elon Musk – claim, that French democracy is now decided by a cabal of unelected judges. If anything, the sentencing went against widespread expectations among the Parisian elite of an outcome that would have kept the political peace. If the presiding judge threw the book at Le Pen, it’s because of the magnitude of a “system” that lasted more than a decade and diverted millions of European Union funds for domestic activities – and because the far-right leader showed no remorse, insisting on March 31 that she was innocent and the victim of a political stitch-up. (If so, she’s in good company.)