French opposition leader Marine Le Pen is in court today for an appeal against a corruption conviction.
The anti-immigration nationalist lost her right to vote or run for office, and was sentenced to house arrest, for embezzlement of millions in public funds.
The appeal risks increasing her sentence, but her conviction does not seem to have reduced her popularity: Support for her party’s policies has shot up from 29% in 2022 to 42% now, Le Monde reported, despite nearly half of voters also considering them “xenophobic.” Anti-immigration populist parties are doing well across Europe; in Britain, the insurgent Reform UK party leads the polls, and a Conservative former finance minister recently defected to them.