Le Pens allies around Europe respond with anger to verdict banning her from running for office [Video]

It was the guilty verdict that echoed around Europe.

When a French court convicted far-right leader Marine Le Pen of embezzling European Union funds – and took the unexpected step of barring her from running for office for the next five years – it not only upended French politics, it provoked an angry backlash from Ms. Le Pen’s allies around Europe, and among fellow travellers in Washington.

The punishment handed down Monday effectively bars Ms. Le Pen from running in France’s 2027 presidential election. Before the verdict, she had been considered a front-runner, after taking 41.5 per cent of the vote in the 2022 race won by President Emmanuel Macron.

“The system has got out the nuclear bomb,” said Ms. Le Pen on Tuesday. “If it is using such a weapon against us, it is obviously because we are on the point of winning elections.”

With Mr. Macron prohibited from running for a third term, most opinion polls have been forecasting Ms. Le Pen …