On July 7, a Paris appeal court allowed French nationalist Marine Le Pen to run in the 2027 presidential elections. In March 2025, Le Pen, whose National Rally party leads French polls, was convicted of embezzling European Union funds and banned from running for office for five years. The appellate court upheld her conviction but lifted the ban. It also ruled that Le Pen, who is not violent or a flight risk, must wear an electronic ankle bracelet.Later that day, the British nationalist Nigel Farage, whose Reform U.K. led British polls, resigned his parliamentary seat and announced his intention to regain it in a by-election. Britain’s parliamentary standards commissioner suspects that Farage failed to declare a £5m ($6.64 million) gift from Christopher Harborne, a British cryptocurrency billionaire. Farage also did not declare that he funded staff, accommodation, and private security expenses with donations from another crypto investor, George Cottrell, who was jailed for wire fraud in the United States in 2017.Farage says he is the “victim of an establishment hit job.” Le Pen and National Rally call it “political discrimination.” President Donald Trump, who has received similar treatment, calls it the “deep state.”