The slow-burning fuse was lit by Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2004, and the bomb exploded on Monday, March 31, at Paris' Judicial Court, shattering the political ambitions of his daughter, Marine Le Pen, and sending shockwaves throughout the French political arena. But by continuing and systematizing the embezzlement of European taxpayer money to sustain the far-right Front National (FN, now Rassemblement National, RN) party, which was struggling financially at the time, and to pay a few close associates, the younger Le Pen caused her own downfall.

The court found her guilty on Monday, March 31, of "embezzlement of public funds," handing down a sentence close to that requested by the prosecutors: Four years in prison, two of which were suspended and the other two to be served at home with an electronic tag, and a five-year ban on running for office effective immediately. The systematic use of funds intended for European parliamentary assistants to support her far-right party's rise to power in France was scrutinized over the years and, in the end, punished, cutting Le Pen's momentum short just as the Elysée seemed within reach for her, at the culmination of a mainstreaming process that had been her political undertaking.

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