Marine Le Pen was banned from running for political office for five years having been accused, alongside others, of embezzling €2.9m ($3.4m; £2.5m) of EU funds for use in France by her National Rally party.
As well as the five-year ban on standing for public office she has been handed a four-year prison sentence, with two of those years suspended and the other two to be spent wearing an electronic tag.
She’d been riding high in the polls ahead of the next election, scheduled in two years’ time.
In a flamboyant show of solidarity on Monday, Hungary’s controversial Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, declared in a post on X, external in French “Je suis Marine” (“I am Marine”).
Populist Geert Wilders, the leader of the Netherlands’ largest political party, posted on X he was sure Le Pen would win her appeal and that she would be France’s next president.
Italy’s hard-line deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, also took to social media: “We are not intimidated… full speed ahead, my friend!”.
“Those who fear the judgment of voters often seek reassurance from the courts. In Paris, they have condemned Marine Le Pen and would like to remove her from political life”, he wrote.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, displayed a sudden interest in democracy, declaring that “Marine Le Pen’s situation constitutes a violation of democratic norms”.
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Related: Marine Le Pen’s presidential dreams crushed after embezzlement conviction
