What does the Le Pen verdict mean for the future of French politics?

There is perhaps no politician in Europe today who embodies the continent’s far-right more than Marine Le Pen. Her thrice-unsuccessful presidential runs on a staunch anti-immigration platform have positioned Le Pen as one of the elder statesmen in Europe’s rightward political lurch for more than a decade, alongside similar figures like Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Germany‘s Alice Weidel. But after years of working to make France a more restrictive place culturally and economically, Le Pen’s political fortunes may have finally run out: On March 31, a French court convicted her of embezzling millions in European Parliament funds, sentencing Le Pen not only to several years of prison time but also barring her from running for political office for the next five years.

Reportedly muttering “incredible” as she stormed out of the courtroom before her sentence was fully announced, Le Pen now finds herself in political exile while the movement she once led scrambles to persevere in her absence. Though she has vowed to appeal her conviction, Le Pen’s political future is now wholly unclear, as is the future of her National Rally Party, and French domestic politics as a whole.