Denouncing judges for being too soft on criminals is an anti-establishment staple for France’s far-right politicians. On Monday, they needed a different line of attack. A Paris criminal court imposed the most severe punishment possible on their leader, Marine Le Pen, for embezzling EU funds. Le Pen was sentenced to two years in jail — or at least wearing an electronic tag — with two more suspended, fined €100,000 and barred from running for office with immediate effect for five years. Though she will appeal, the ban seriously jeopardises Le Pen’s candidacy for the 2027 presidential election — which would have been her fourth bid for the Elysée palace, and probably the most propitious.

Le Pen’s allies attacked the tough sentence as outrageous judicial over-reach. The court had not only “unjustly” convicted the leader of the Rassemblement National party, but also “executed” French democracy, fumed her deputy Jordan Bardella. Fellow populist leaders across Europe chimed in. The Kremlin fretted about the erosion of democratic standards. More surprisingly, even some of Le Pen’s staunchest political foes in France condemned the court for depriving voters of the right to choose.

The court, though, was doing its job of upholding the rules of conduct in elected office. EU and French authorities began investigating claims of embezzlement by RN officials a decade ago. Prosecutors assembled ample evidence that nine former lawmakers and their assistants knowingly and systematically misused more than €4mn in European parliament funds for French political activities. Le Pen played a central role in the fraud dating back to 2009, the court found. Politicians from the centrist MoDem party were previously convicted of similar offences.