Overview
- A Paris Court of Appeal on Tuesday upheld Marine Le Pen’s conviction for misusing European Parliament funds while cutting her ban on holding office to 45 months with 30 months suspended and imposing a €100,000 fine.
- The court sentenced Le Pen to three years in prison with two years suspended and ordered one year to be served at home under electronic monitoring, a condition she has said would likely prevent effective campaigning.
- Because part of the original ban began in March 2025 and about 15 months have already run, the shortened ineligibility technically makes Le Pen eligible to stand in April 2027.
- Le Pen said she will consider further appeals to France’s Court of Cassation and has publicly suggested she might not run while wearing an ankle monitor, leaving National Rally president Jordan Bardella as the most likely alternative candidate.
- The verdict closes a chapter in a long probe of a 2004–2016 ‘fake jobs’ scheme that used EU funds to pay party staff and raises practical questions about how electronic-tag rules, internal party strategy, and any Cassation timing will shape the RN’s campaign and voter choice next year.