nam 22 uu 4500 10.59704/85456ea84ddee756 DE-Verfassungsblog cr||||| 260714s2026||||xx#|||||o|||| ||| 0|eng|| 10.59704/85456ea84ddee756 doi eng 342 23 Capoccia, Giovanni Author aut (orcid)0000-0002-7508-0290 Le Pen’s Gambit - France’s Next Presidential Election Could Put the Rule of Law on the Ballot Capoccia, Giovanni Verfassungsblog 2026-07-14 Text txt rdacontent Computermedien c rdamedia Online-Ressource cr rdacarrier Marine Le Pen’s presidential campaign began not with a rally but with a court judgment. By announcing her candidacy in a prime-time television interview within hours of the Paris Court of Appeal largely upholding her criminal conviction, the leader of the Rassemblement National has placed one of Europe's oldest constitutional democracies on a path toward a direct confrontation between electoral politics and judicial authority. CC BY-SA 4.0 Authoritarian Populism Marine Le Pen Rassemblement National separation of powers Max Steinbeis Verfassungsblog gGmbH Verfassungsblog 2366-7044 https://verfassungsblog.de/le-pens-gambit/ raw object