A Paris appeals court began delivering its verdict Tuesday afternoon that will determine the political future of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen — and potentially reshape the country’s next presidential race.
The ruling, which began at 1:30 p.m. and was expected to take several hours to read, centers on whether Le Pen will be permitted to seek the French presidency in 2027. That election will choose a successor to President Emmanuel Macron, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term.
Le Pen, 57, is challenging a March 2025 conviction in which she and fellow members of her National Rally party were found guilty of misappropriating European Parliament funds. The case involves allegations that the party paid its own staff using money that was designated for EU parliamentary assistants — a practice prosecutors say continued from 2004 through 2016.
The original lower court ruling handed Le Pen a suspended prison sentence and a five-year ban on holding elected office. She has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has expressed her intention to make a fourth run at the presidency.
Should the appeals court uphold a lengthy ban, Le Pen’s presidential ambitions would effectively be ended, and her career — which transformed the National Rally into one of France’s most significant political forces — would be placed on hold. Such a ruling could also have wider implications for the European Union, as Le Pen has been a prominent critic of the 27-nation bloc.
If she is disqualified from running, her protege Jordan Bardella, 30, who currently leads the anti-immigration, EU-skeptic National Rally as its president, would be positioned to take her place as the party’s standard-bearer.
However, the court has other options available. It could uphold the guilty finding while reducing the office-holding ban to two years or less — or eliminate the ban entirely. A ban of two years or less would run out before the first round of the French presidential election, currently scheduled for April 2027.
Even so, Le Pen has indicated that simply being legally eligible to run may not be enough. She has said that if the court imposes conditions that interfere with her ability to campaign freely — such as a prison sentence, electronic monitoring, or other judicial restrictions — she may choose not to enter the race.
“If I’m allowed to be a candidate but am effectively prevented from campaigning freely, then you understand that wouldn’t be possible,” Le Pen said in an interview last week.
Prosecutors urged the appeals court to sentence Le Pen to four years in prison — three of which would be suspended — along with a five-year ban on holding public office. They characterized her as the architect of a scheme designed to “siphon off” EU public funds for the benefit of her party.
While prosecutors did not specifically request it, the appeals court has the authority to order any ban to take immediate effect, as the lower court previously did.
Le Pen retains the right to appeal further to France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, though it remains uncertain whether that court would pause enforcement of the sentence while it reviews the case. The Court of Cassation has previously indicated that, if asked to weigh in, it would aim to issue a decision before the 2027 presidential election.
