PARIS>> A French court on Monday convicted Marine Le Pen of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years — a hammer blow to the far-right leader’s presidential hopes and an earthquake for French politics.

Speaking to French TV channel TF1 in her first reaction to the verdict, Le Pen called the ruling a “political” move aimed at preventing her from running in the 2027 presidential election and said that millions of French people “are outraged.”

She called the verdict a violation of the rule of law, said she would appeal and asked that the court proceedings take place before the 2027 campaign. She would remain ineligible to be a candidate until the appeal is decided.

Le Pen also was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, with two to be served under house arrest and two suspended. The court ruling was a political as well as a judicial temblor for France, hobbling one of the leading contenders to succeed President Emmanuel Macron at the end of his second and final term. So broad were the political implications that even some of Le Pen’s opponents said the Paris court had gone too far.

But it’s too early to say how the case will affect voters. The potential elimination of Le Pen could fire up diehard supporters, just as U.S. President’s Donald Trump’s legal problems motivated some of his. But it could also leave her on the sidelines, deflating what had been her upward trajectory.

Le Pen herself was not around to hear the chief judge pronounce the sentence that threw her career into a tailspin. By then, she had already strode out of the courtroom after the judge first indicated that the 56-year-old would be barred from office, without saying straight away for how long.

Although Le Pen did not immediately comment, her supporters quickly expressed disapproval.

Jordan Bardella, her 29-year-old protégé who could replace her on the ballot in 2027 if she cannot run, said on X that Le Pen was “being unjustly condemned” and that French democracy was “being executed.”

Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, quickly took to social media to express his support, posting “Je suis Marine!” — I am Marine — on X.

Among political opponents of Le Pen who expressed unease was conservative lawmaker Laurent Wauquiez, who said the verdict put “a very heavy weight on our democracy.”

The sentence could prevent Le Pen from making what would have been her fourth run for the presidency in 2027, a scenario she has previously described as a “political death.”

The party’s most recognized figurehead and a formidable campaigner, Le Pen was runner-up to Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party’s electoral support has grown in recent years.

Only an appellate ruling that overturns the ban on public office could restore her hopes of running. But with the election just two years away, time is running out.