She has repeatedly defied political expectations and judges alike
Again, Marine Le Pen had a choice and chose confrontation against compromise.
The 57 year old politician has revived her bid for the French presidency on Tuesday evening, opting for a high-risk legal battle rather than accepting a lighter sentence that would have allowed her to run by conceding guilt.
Whatever the outcome of her appeal on the embezzlement of EU funds, the decision keeps alive the defying ambition that has defined her political career. Le Pen dismissed all the cases against her as a judicial “witch hunt” aimed at her self-styled anti-establishment National Rally (RN).
Over more than two decades, she has transformed the movement she inherited from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, turning the marginal party known back then as National Front into a movement capable of competing for power and reshaping French politics.
