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Two insurgent right-wing politicians in Europe, both under financial scrutiny that has jeopardized their political prospects, launched career-deciding election bids Tuesday.
Nigel Farage, the leader of the surging Reform UK party in Britain, said he would resign from Parliament to rerun for his seat in a test of voter confidence amid a brewing donations scandal. And French opposition leader Marine Le Pen announced she would run for the presidency next year after an appeals court shortened a ban on holding public office tied to her conviction in an embezzlement case.
In London, Farage, a close ally of President Donald Trump and an architect of Brexit, Britain's departure from the European Union, said he would effectively challenge voters to either renew or reject his political mandate amid two parliamentary investigations into allegations that he accepted undeclared donations and benefits, including a 5-million-pound gift from a cryptocurrency billionaire.
In Paris, the appeals court largely nullified the penalties of an embezzlement conviction that had barred Le Pen, leader of the anti-immigrant National Rally party and a thrice unsuccessful French presidential candidate, from holding elected office for five years.
Both Le Pen and Farage have been fixtures on their national stages for decades. The increasing popularity of Le Pen - and her increasing vote shares in three successive presidential runs - have played a key role in the right-wing politics sweeping much of Europe.
Farage has helmed successive right-wing parties in the United Kingdom since the 2000s and was a key proponent of his country's departure from the European Union in the run-up to the 2016 Brexit referendum, which his side won. In the 2024 election, Farage won a seat in Parliament, his first victory after seven prior attempts, under the banner of the Reform UK party.
As the French presidential election and the parliamentary special election approach, both political leaders have the potential to reshape their country's anti-immigration, right-wing political flanks.
Tuesday's decision found Le Pen guilty of her original embezzlement conviction but reduced the ban on holding elected office, clearing a way for her to enter the race to succeed term-limited French President Emmanuel Macron. Hours later, she confirmed in an interview with French news channel TF1 that she would run while also challenging the ruling in the Court of Cassation, France's highest court of appeal.
Le Pen's decision to run upends previous expectations that Jordan Bardella, Le Pen's 30-year-old protégé and anointed successor, would take her place. The National Rally is competitive in the polls for the 2027 presidential election.
Across the English Channel, a special election - a by-election, in British parlance - would put Farage's case in front of the voters of Clacton, a right-wing stronghold in east England that Farage handily won in the 2024 election.
But the political mandate to emerge from the by-election may be a weak one: After Farage's announcement, all but one of Britain's main political parties said they would not contest the by-election, with the ruling Labour Party calling it a "gimmick." The far-left Green Party has not announced whether it intends to field a candidate.
Winning the by-election would also not put an end to Farage's parliamentary investigations, which are set to be suspended unless Farage is reelected. And a reduced vote share in Clacton could add to questions over Farage's leadership of Reform UK following the party's defeats in two recent by-elections.
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Joshua Yang has repoorted for The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Rest of World, The Nation and elsewhere.