A high-profile appeal by far-right French politician Marine Le Pen begins on Tuesday against a ruling that bans her from running for public office for five years.
Le Pen, 57, was found guilty of embezzling EU funds last year and will not be able to run in the 2027 presidential election if the ban is upheld. She insists she has not committed “the slightest irregularity.”
Ahead of the appeal, the leader of her National Rally Party, Jordan Bardella, said her exclusion from the election was “deeply worrying for democracy.”
Bardella said he would not run for president next year but would instead seek the junior post of prime minister.
The case at the Paris Court of Appeal will last until February 12, but a verdict is not expected until the summer, well before next year’s presidential election.
Last year’s case revolved around allegations that Le Pen, along with more than 20 other senior party members, hired assistants to work on their RN party’s affairs rather than for the European Parliament, which paid them.
Judge Bénédicte de Perthuis said Le Pen was at the “heart of the system” that embezzled European funds worth 2.9 million euros (£2.5 million).
Le Pen was sentenced to four years in prison – two years were suspended and the remaining two years were served with an electronic tag rather than in pre-trial detention. She was fined €100,000 (£82,635) and banned from holding public office “with immediate effect”.
If she loses her appeal, she could face an even longer prison sentence.
More than 20 RN members were also found guilty in last year’s trial and the party was ordered to pay a fine of 2 million euros, with half of the amount suspended.
Eleven of Le Pen’s colleagues are taking part in the appeal in Paris, but 12 have decided not to challenge the original verdicts, including her sister Yann Le Pen, who was given a one-year suspended prison sentence.
Bardella addressed journalists on the eve of the appeal in the presence of Le Pen and said the RN leader would prove her innocence.
“It would be deeply worrying for democracy if the judiciary were to deprive the French people of a presidential candidate who has already qualified for the second round twice and is now considered the undisputed favorite in the election,” he said.
Le Pen hopes the appeals court will overturn the lower court’s ruling, clearing her name and the path to run for the highest office in France for a fourth time.
A second possible outcome would be for the appeals panel to uphold the guilty verdict but delete the “immediate effect” clause. This would allow her to run even if she decided to appeal to the country’s highest court – the Court of Cassation – to overturn the guilty verdict.
A third outcome could see appeals judges shorten the five-year ban enough to allow Le Pen to register by the March 2027 deadline.
And a fourth would be to leave the lower court’s decisions unchanged. This would make her candidacy almost impossible – even if she would still be expected to take the case to the Court of Cassation.
With the presidential election expected to take place in April 2027, much will depend on the substance – and timing – of the rulings.
