Marine Le Pen is running for the French presidency

But on July 7th, in an unexpected twist, the court of appeal in Paris upheld Ms Le Pen’s conviction for the misuse of European Parliament funds for party ends—yet lightened her sentence, freeing her to run. Hours later Ms Le Pen announced that she, not Jordan Bardella, her 30-year-old lieutenant, would make a bid for the presidency after all.

The RN leader’s decision ends 15 months of uncertainty, and sets France up for a highly unusual election. In its ruling, the court of appeal handed her a three-year jail sentence; two are suspended, and one is to be served with an electronic ankle tag. Crucially for Ms Le Pen, the court also shortened her ban and ruled that she had already served the ineligibility penalty.

Speaking on television, Ms Le Pen said that the ban had posed “an enormous democratic problem”, and that its ending changed everything, enabling “the people to decide”. That ruling, in effect, took the political decision out of the judges’ hands and put it firmly into hers. Ms Le Pen continues to claim that she is innocent. She said that she would now take her case to the highest court, the Cour de cassation, in part to contest the wearing of the tag (which will not be imposed while the appeal is under way).