With this damning of Le Pen, France can be the ‘anti-Trump’. It’s a bold path others should follow| Alexander Hurst

Marine Le Pen was convicted of fraudulently defrauding the public of millions of euros.

The guilty verdict rendered against Le Pen comes with a sentence of ineligibility to run for office.

Le Pen's party operated an organised scheme to embezzle public funds by creating fictitious parliamentary assistant jobs at the European parliament.

Few European politicians have seen the explosive benefit to be had in positioning themselves as a kind of anti-Trump’ The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney , has done to such effect, despite his country being far more vulnerable to US aggression than most of Europe is.

In polling from February , a worrying 48% of French people said “nothing moves in democracy, there should be less democracy and more effectiveness”.