Ms Le Pen was found guilty on Monday of embezzlement for her role in a scheme which saw European parliamentary funds used to finance her political party, National Rally (RN).

She was given a four-year sentence suspended for two years, which she will be allowed to serve with an electronic tag instead of in prison, and slapped with a €100,000 fine.

However, what has outraged Ms Le Pen and her supporters the most is the imposition of a five-year ban on running for political office — ruling out her ambition of contesting and winning the French presidential election in 2027.

Ms Le Pen has said she will appeal the verdict and her party has called for a mass demonstration in Paris against the ban.

Judge Bénédicte de Perthuis, who handed down the sentence on behalf of a three-judge panel, has been granted special police protection in response to online threats from supporters of Ms Le Pen, according to reports.

The French National Bar Council (CNB) said in a statement that it “strongly condemns the attacks on the president of the 11th correctional chamber of the Paris judicial court”.

“The challenge of a decision is legitimate — threats against judges are unacceptable,” it continued.

“The independence of the judiciary is a pillar of the rule of law.”

French justice minister Gérald Darmanin wrote on X: “The threats made against the magistrates of the Paris judicial court are unacceptable in a democracy and worrying for the independence of the judicial authority.”

Ms Le Pen’s far-left rival, Jean-Luc Melenchon of La France Insoumise (LFI), said judges were now being subjected to the same threats from the far-right that politicians and activists from his own party had received.

“Perhaps we will finally understand that the danger in this county is the extreme right and militias, and not left-wing activists and their democratic actions,” he said.