Will Le Pen rise again? After the court decision, the French nationalist leader protested

France is waking up wide-eyed on Wednesday, with many still reeling from the overnight political upheaval sparked by right-wing nationalist leader Marine Le Pen.

Within hours of a Paris appeals court finding her guilty of misusing public funds, she not only announced she would run in next year’s French presidential election, but also launched her social media campaign.

Pour la France – for France – reads her online poster, which features the country’s tricolor flag and a smiling Le Pen, with her arms outstretched.

“Like (actress) Kate Winslet on the Titanic,” muttered a chatty French journalist. “France now feels like the Titanic – sinking – at least politically!”

Le Pen’s campaign has promised the opposite. “La Renaissance” is its subtitle – rebirth.

Le Pen has always said that she is a woman who listens, a woman of the people. Many in France (as in many European countries) are disillusioned with politics and traditional politicians. Seeing the differences in society, they yearn for change.

Le Pen happily swims in these divided waters. You will often hear her referencing “The People” versus the “Metropolitan Elite” or “Patriots” – who she represents – as she fights politically to put the people of France first, while she insults her fellow politicians, including current French President Emmanuel Macron, as “Globalists”.

By the way, the name of his political party is Renaissance. It can’t be a coincidence that the word is prominent in Le Pen’s new online campaign. It’s a dig at the man who, when he was first elected president a decade ago, promised that no French citizen would feel the need to vote for what he called political extremes.

Le Pen’s National Rally made it clear that he placed the party in the extremism camp. It’s no surprise that next year’s French presidential election could involve France’s far left with Le Pen and Jean-Luc Melenchon in a crucial round.

Le Pen He lost to Macron twice in the last presidential election. Banned by law from running for a third term in France, he has never looked so strong in public opinion polls.

Reincarnation is a relevant concept when it comes to Le Pen because she has often been written off as a career politician (for example, after a televised debate against Macron in a car crash in the lead-up to the 2017 presidential election) to become more powerful.

Her outstretched arms on the social media campaign poster might make us think of the phoenix rising from the ashes.

Most people in France believed that an appeals court on Tuesday would uphold Le Pen’s fraud conviction, but also the five-year ban on her from running for public office in the original conviction. Many predicted that it would end her political career.

In fact, with a lot of political scrutiny on this matter, The Court of Appeal shortened the banLeaving the decision to Penn. It allowed her to run for president if she chose, while forcing her to wear an electronic tag for a year.