French Court Clears Way for Le Pen to Run in 2027 Presidential Race

PARIS—A French appeals court on July 7 upheld the embezzlement conviction of National Rally figurehead Marine Le Pen while reducing the penalty that had threatened to bar her from next year’s presidential race, leaving open the prospect that she can run in 2027.

The Paris Court of Appeal sentenced Le Pen to three years in prison, one of them to be served under an electronic tag, and to 15 months of firm ineligibility. That marks a reduction from the sentence handed down on March 31, 2025, when a criminal court imposed a four-year prison term, a 100,000-euro fine, and a five-year ban from public office with immediate effect.

In principle, Le Pen can stand as a candidate in the 2027 presidential election. Le Pen has said that wearing a bracelet would make a campaign impossible, as it would restrict her movements. 

She also retains 10 days to file an appeal with the Court of Cassation, France’s highest court, which reviews the application of the law rather than the facts.

Le Pen, 57, has long framed the case as politically motivated, calling her party the target of a witch hunt.

If Le Pen does not run, Jordan Bardella, the National Rally president, 30, would carry the party’s banner in the presidential election.

Rodolphe Bosselut, Marine Le Pen’s lawyer, said as he left the courtroom that the court’s decision was “a good start” and represented a partial victory.

The French president, currently visiting Damascus, declined to comment on the ruling against Le Pen when asked. “The president of the Republic does not comment on judicial decisions,” he said.

“In a normal world where the RN had even the slightest shred of morality, she would step down from running herself,” said Marine Tondelier, leader of the Greens. “Because you cannot decently stand for election after having been convicted in this way for misappropriating public funds, even if you remain eligible.”

Clémentine Autain, a lawmaker from the left flank of Macron’s Ensemble coalition, struck a similar note. “Whilst the RN blames immigrants for all society’s ills and dreams of imposing ever-harsher penalties for petty crime, it is fleecing taxpayers,” she said.

“Such a conviction, regardless of how the sentence is adjusted, cannot allow someone to stand before the French people,” said Fabien Roussel, the head of the French Communist Party.

“It’s a mixed decision,” Wallerand de Saint-Just, a former RN treasurer who was convicted in the case, told The Epoch Times.

Aside from Marine Le Pen and her party, 10 other defendants had appealed after the initial trial. All were convicted again.

“It goes against us on the legal merits, but the sentences have been significantly reduced, even though the court says essentially the same thing as the trial court about the seriousness of the offense. To me, that’s a sign the Court of Appeal is uncomfortable with its position from a strictly legal standpoint,” Saint-Just said.

He maintained that the case was not about the misappropriation of public funds but rather an “administrative disagreement,” arguing that the rules were not clear.

“Everyone could reasonably have believed that Parliament was fully aware of each parliamentary assistant’s situation. This should therefore have been resolved within Parliament itself,” he argued.

In a statement shared with The Epoch Times, the European Parliament’s Press Service said it “takes note of today’s judgment by the Paris Court of Appeal, which found the defendants guilty of misappropriation of funds.”

The institution stressed that joining the case as a civil party was standard practice, taken “as it does in all similar cases” to protect public money. Its aim, it said, has “always been to safeguard European taxpayers’ money and the Parliament’s budget, in accordance with its mandate and rules of procedure.”

Beyond that, the Parliament said it would “not comment on any other aspect of the trial, the judgment, or any potential appeal before the Court of Cassation” at this stage.