Emmanuel Macron has backed the “independent” judges who banned Marine Le Pen from running in the next French presidential election. In his first reported comments on the case, Mr Macron said that threats made to the three-judge panel after their verdict were “absolutely intolerable”.

PARIS (AP) — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has denounced as “a democratic scandal” the court ruling that placed a five-year ban on her seeking public office for embezzling European Union funds. The Paris court says it would be undemocratic to allow a convicted official to run for president.

As the leader of the French far right and a member of its first family, Le Pen has proven herself a survivor. She lived through a bomb attack as a child, a very public falling-out with her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, and a public humiliation during her 2017 presidential debate against a young Emmanuel Macron.