A French appeals court on Tuesday upheld Marine Le Pen’s conviction for misusing European Union funds. It also eased her sentence, clearing the main legal barrier to a 2027 presidential run. But it attached a condition she has said would keep her out of the race.
Le Pen, the figurehead of France’s far right, had set two conditions for a candidacy. She wanted to be eligible to run when the first round of voting takes place. And she did not want to wear an electronic tag. The Paris Court of Appeal met the first condition. It did not meet the second.
She was found guilty in early 2025 of running a scheme that used European Parliament money to pay staff working for her party rather than on parliamentary business. That conviction barred her from public office for five years, effective immediately. It would have kept her off the 2027 ballot.
On appeal, the court confirmed the guilty verdict but cut the ban to 45 months, 30 of them suspended. The judges counted the ban from March 31, 2025, just after the original sentence. With the remainder suspended, the period of ineligibility has already run out. The first obstacle is gone.
The second remains. The court sentenced Le Pen to three years in prison, two of them suspended. The final year is to be served at home under an electronic tag rather than behind bars. She was also fined 100,000 euros.
Le Pen has said repeatedly that she will not campaign while wearing a tag. She has also said she will not take risks that could delay a possible run by Jordan Bardella, the party’s president and her chosen successor. On that logic, the choice to stand aside would be hers, not the court’s.
Some uncertainty surrounds the exact terms of the sentence. According to Le Monde, adjustments to how the year of monitoring is served could open room for a campaign, and Le Pen could seek talks with the judge who supervises the sentence. After the hearing she met at length with her lawyers and with Louis Aliot, a co-defendant who remains mayor of Perpignan because his own ineligibility was suspended.
One of her lawyers, Rodolphe Bosselut, told the broadcaster BFM that the defense was “partially satisfied.” He said the team was still weighing the full ruling and would say more later.
The case behind the verdict
The charges date to Le Pen’s leadership of what was then the National Front, since renamed the National Rally. Prosecutors said funds meant to pay parliamentary aides went instead to party workers.
The court found Le Pen and 10 co-defendants guilty of diverting European Parliament money. It ordered them to repay close to 2 million euros to reimburse the assistant contracts, according to the BBC. They must also pay 150,000 euros in moral damages to the parliament, plus legal costs. Each defendant received an individual fine as well.
Her first conviction carried heavier terms than the one confirmed on appeal. It included the immediate five-year ban and a four-year prison sentence, two years suspended and two to be served in home detention, along with the same 100,000 euro fine. Only some of the defendants convicted at the first trial were retried on appeal.
Bardella in the wings
Bardella is Le Pen’s protégé and would carry the National Rally banner if she does not run. On Monday evening, before the verdict, he published a long tribute to her on X. He praised her steadfastness and resilience and said she had inspired him to devote his life to politics. He challenged the legitimacy of the ban and pledged his loyalty, writing that she could count on him yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Why it matters beyond France
The outcome carries weight well beyond Paris. France is the second largest economy in the EU, a nuclear power and one of the bloc’s few substantial military forces. That makes its next president a matter of close attention across European capitals. Polls have placed Le Pen and Bardella ahead of other likely contenders to the French Presidency. Presidential elections are set to be held in France in April and May 2027.
The BBC reported that some European officials quietly wonder whether Bardella, younger and less tested, might prove more pragmatic in office, or more prone to stumbles on the campaign trail. Others expect populist parties elsewhere in Europe, including Germany’s AfD, to seize on the ruling as evidence that the establishment will use “legal lawfare” to sideline them.
What comes next
Le Pen left the courtroom smiling but declined to take questions. She was expected to give her answer on TF1’s 8 p.m. news. The question there was whether she would hold to her stated position and step back for Bardella, or reconsider and run after all.
Sources: Reuters, Le Monde, BBC
