From the Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. I'm Manvine Rano.

It was the court case that gripped the French political world. Earlier this week, it finally concluded.

We're in a courtroom near the plaster cliche on the outskirts of Paris, a fairly bland, non-descript, modern kind of building.

Marine Le Pen has been sitting in the front row to hear the verdict that is going to be pronounced.

But when she hears the word guilty,

she essentially stands up and storms out of the courtroom

pursued by a number of French journalists.

The judge hadn't yet finished delivering his sentence

when Marine Le Pen was already out of the courtroom doors.

Banned from running for public office with immediate effect, she'd seemingly heard enough.

A five-year ban, a $100,000 fine and a four-year prison sentence, two of which will be suspended,

the other two spent with an electronic tag.

Having stormed out of court,

Marine Le Pen wasted no time in marching into the TV studios to decry the decision of the judge.

I think the judges got it wrong.

I think they chose to ignore all of the explanations that were given,

because in the very first hours of this trial,

I had understood that the court was biased against us.

I did not think that the magistrates would go this far against the democratic process.

Was this a dark day for French democracy? or a demonstration of how the French judicial system holds people to account, regardless of their political heft and influence?

And how much will this impact the results of the next presidential elections?

No. of the next presidential elections. The story today, how Le Pen's conviction could strengthen the hard right.

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