It’s YOLO season in global politics. With apologies to Graham Platner’s campaign consultants and the lone opponent in Nigel Farage’s gimmicky by-election—in which the far-right British politician is facing off against a satirist who goes by the name of “Count Binface”—the prize for most reckless goes to Marine Le Pen. The French politician announced on Tuesday that she’d be running for president for a fourth time, despite her extremely unclear legal status, which won’t be decided until at least April of next year, the month of the first round of the election.
Le Pen, the 57-year-old daughter of the late Jean-Marie Le Pen, and current head of the far-right National Rally party, was convicted in March 2025 of embezzling $4.5 million in European Parliament funds to pay for her party’s business, essentially robbing European Union taxpayers to further her domestic agenda for 11 years. (Among those she hired at salaries of $11,000 a month, far beyond the French median wage of $2,500: her bodyguard, her sister, and her chauffeur.) The French court found the bad acts so systemic that Le Pen was ruled ineligible to hold public office for five years, effective immediately, and sentenced to four years in prison (reduced to two years’ home confinement with an ankle monitor) and a fine of nearly $115,000. The National Rally party itself was also fined $2.2 million, with $1.1 million suspended.
