No stopping Le Pen? French appeals court clears way for 2027 presidential run

There's a catch, though. The 57-year-old Le Pen must wear an electronic tag until July next year. Will she break the promise she made last week not to hit the campaign trail with an ankle that goes beep? Her answer is expected in a prime-time television interview.

Either way, what role is left for Le Pen's understudy, 30-year-old Jordan Bardella, dismissed by critics as her puppet but hailed by supporters as the face of renewal for a far right that has effectively been a family enterprise since the days of its late patriarch, Jean-Marie Le Pen?

Does the name on the ballot next April make a difference? More broadly, why is France's far right more popular than at any point in living memory? After the term-limited Emmanuel Macron, will the French really elect a leader who has expressed admiration for Donald Trump, and whose party previously financed campaigns with loans linked to Vladimir Putin? Would Europe begin to come apart?

We'll examine a France divided between the radical right, the hard left and a splintered centre.

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.