The political landscape in France changed this week after the appeal court judges upheld the guilty verdict against Marine Le Pen for misappropriating European Parliament funds, but reduced the five-year ban on her standing for public office to fifteen months. Time already served, said the Paris court. With Marine Le Pen no longer the presidential hopeful for the single most popular party in France right now, the far-right National Rally.
But what of the nearly man in this story, Jordan Bardella, who was almost the chosen one to lead the party in the absence of Marine le Pen, and will now play second fiddle.
We can look at the rise and pause of Jordan Bardella, and the return of Le Pen in more detail, what it means for the party, what it means for France, with Catherine Porter, international correspondent for the New York Times based in Paris.
