"Damn, what a year." Marine Le Pen had just attended the funeral of one of her lawyers, on May 14. François Wagner was almost like family to her. His father, Georges-Paul Wagner, had been a prominent lawyer for her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, as well as monarchist or Catholic fundamentalist far-right figures, and he had welcomed her into his law firm as his protégé as soon as she passed the bar exam. The younger Wagner inherited both his father's politics and his clients, and, in 2024, defended Marine Le Pen at the trial of her party's fake parliamentary assistant jobs, even hosting preparatory meetings for their defense at his own home.

Her tears dried up, a glass in her hand, Le Pen, together with fellow lawyers, tallied up the misfortunes she had suffered over recent months: her father's death, on January 7, which she learned of while she was on a plane coming back from the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte; her ban on running for elected office, effective immediately, which took her by surprise on March 31, as she had refused to anticipate the failure of her legal defense strategy; and, now, the sudden loss of a friend. "Her state of mind, since January, has been one of mourning. And it hasn't exactly acted as a driving force," said one of her advisers worriedly.

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