Just like a curse. On the morning of May 3, 2017, before she was set to face Emmanuel Macron in the presidential election debate, Marine Le Pen discovered that her vision was blurred and streaked, accompanied by severe headaches. A doctor diagnosed her with an ocular migraine, as Le Monde revealed at the time. The far-right candidate considered canceling the debate. That evening, in front of millions of viewers, it was a debacle. The next day, during a final rally in northern France, she told party activists, "So, you still come to see the one who messed everything up?" On May 7, she lost the presidential election, with 33.9% of the vote.

Many then wondered if the shadow of her father, who lost the use of his left eye in 1965, had played a role. Several advisers to Macron at the Elysée still believe this. They have long speculated about the "impediments" and "self-sabotage" of Jean-Marie Le Pen's daughter, who, according to them, might not actually want power. Her close associates have always denied this.

Eight years later, even as she had never been closer to grasping it, Marine Le Pen has watched it slip out of her hands again. Paradoxically, it happened when the leader of the Rassemblement National (RN) party was finally freed from the burdensome image of her father, who died on January 7. She saw the door to the Elysée firmly close when she was condemned on Monday, March 31, to a five-year ban from running for office, effective immediately even if appealed. From one impediment to another. "Marine is a tragic figure," RN vice president Sébastien Chenu told the party's eminence grise, Philippe Olivier, in autumn 2024, following the prosecution's sentencing requests in Le Pen's embezzlement trial.

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