Overview
- The Paris Court of Appeal on July 7 confirmed Marine Le Pen guilty of misusing European Parliament funds, reduced her custodial sentence to three years with two suspended, and ordered one year of electronic monitoring.
- The court cut the accessory ban from five years to 15 months and judges treated that period as already served, which in law leaves Le Pen technically eligible to stand in the April 2027 presidential election.
- Le Pen has filed an appeal to the Court of Cassation and is seeking suspension or mitigation of the electronic-bracelet requirement so she can campaign without wearing it.
- Rassemblement National has prepared Jordan Bardella as a contingency candidate, and recent polls show the party and Bardella leading first-round voting projections, raising the stakes of any late judicial developments.
- The case concerns alleged diversion of EU parliamentary funds from 2004 to 2016 to pay party staff, the court noted no personal enrichment by Le Pen, and the timing of further rulings could shape candidate choices and campaign logistics ahead of 2027.