PARIS — Until she was convicted on embezzlement charges Monday, France’s Marine Le Pen was not just the country’s best-known hard-right leader but also the front-runner in its 2027 presidential elections. Now, even though a court banned her from running for office for five years, she retains a singular power — namely, to render the country ungovernable.

There is no precise French translation for “lawfare,” but that’s exactly the accusation Le Pen and her partisans have leveled throughout her months-long trial. They called the prosecution a witch hunt, a page taken directly from Donald Trump’s playbook.

Shame and contrition are quaint contrivances from a bygone era. Trump is a felon whose 2024 conviction wasn’t even a speed bump on his path to the White House. The prime minister of Italy leads a party born in the ashes of postwar fascism. Leaders of Germany’s surging right-wing party have repeatedly downplayed Nazi crimes; they are embraced by Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance.

There are no more red lines. In Europe, as in the United States, any political life, no matter how compromised, might easily enjoy a........

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