Did a court decision just alter the outcome of a French presidential election that's less than 300 days away? Marine Le Pen's conviction for funnelling EU parliamentary staff funds to her far-right National Rally party initially left her facing 30 months of ineligibility to run for public office. But that ban has now been halved, making it possible for her to launch a fourth bid for the presidency.
There's a catch, though. The 57-year-old Le Pen must wear an electronic tag until July next year. Will she break the promise she made last week not to hit the campaign trail with an ankle that goes beep? Her answer is expected in a prime-time television interview.
Either way, what role is left for Le Pen's understudy, 30-year-old Jordan Bardella, dismissed by critics as her puppet but hailed by supporters as the face of renewal for a far right that has effectively been a family enterprise since the days of its late patriarch, Jean-Marie Le Pen?
Does the name on the ballot next April make a difference? More broadly, why is France's far right more popular than at any point in living memory? After the term-limited Emmanuel Macron, will the French really elect a leader who has expressed admiration for Donald Trump, and whose party previously financed campaigns with loans linked to Vladimir Putin? Would Europe begin to come apart?
We'll examine a France divided between the radical right, the hard left and a splintered centre.
Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.
