Overview
- Tuesday’s appeal by Marine Le Pen to the Cour de cassation formally suspends the penalties from the July appellate ruling and allows her to begin campaigning without an electronic ankle bracelet.
- The suspended measures include a one-year term of house arrest monitored by an electronic tag and a 15-month ban on holding office that appellate judges said Le Pen has already effectively served.
- The Cour de cassation has said it will rule by early April 2027, before the first presidential round on April 18, and a confirmed verdict would make the sentence final and let a enforcement judge set timing for any bracelet.
- Rassemblement National reported hacker attacks on its website and servers and on Le Pen’s X account, and the Paris prosecutor has opened a cybercrime probe after reports of some personal data being compromised.
- The underlying case dates to a 2025 finding that EU funds paid parliamentary assistants who actually worked for the party, and the legal pause matters because Le Pen leads polls above 30 percent and a victory would grant presidential immunity that delays any penalty enforcement.