Judge bars Marine Le Pen from running for president, disenfranchising her supporters

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Democracy need not, as the adage goes, always die in darkness. These days, the surgical light of a courtroom does the trick.

Marine Le Pen, the right-wing frontrunner to become France’s next president, has just been barred from holding office for five years after being convicted of embezzling EU funds to pay party staff.

The ruling, delivered by a French court on Monday, is the latest — and most explosive — entry in a growing genre: populists blocked from power not by voters, but by unelected judges.

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The judge in Le Pen’s case found she was “at the heart” of a scheme to siphon off more than €4 million ($6 million CAD) to pay staff of her National Rally party. The case was solid, and the evidence damning. Le Pen is appealing the conviction, with a decision expected next year.

There is no evidence the ruling was politically motivated. But it was the court’s decision to order a “provisional execution” of the sentence — meaning the ban takes immediate effect despite her ongoing appeal — that has upended French politics. This extraordinary move, rarely used for financial crimes, has fuelled speculation of a stitch-up