Marine Le Pen’s conviction raises the thorny question of when a democracy should disqualify a candidate. The case, involving a scheme to divert EU funds to her political party, was no stitch-up. Nevertheless, our leader argues that she should be allowed to run for president, in spite of her crimes.

And ahead of Donald Trump’s much-hyped tariffs announcement later today, we look at how the rest of the world could respond. Europe has the power to build a formidable bloc of open-market allies. But rules-bending China will spy an opportunity to gain influence.