©picture alliance / MAXPPP | Olivier Corsan (staff)
Marine Le Pen is, in principle, eligible to run for the 2027 French presidential election after an appeals court upheld her conviction in the case involving the misuse of European Parliament funds but reduced the ban on her eligibility to run for office.
The decision does not mean that Le Pen has been acquitted. The judges sentenced her to three years in prison—two years suspended and one year under electronic monitoring—plus a fine of 100,000 euros.
Her ineligibility was also adjusted: instead of an immediate five-year ban, she is now barred from office for 45 months, 30 of which are suspended. According to reports, this would still allow Le Pen to run in the presidential race, though the legal details remain complex.
A clever move or a risky gamble?
Marine Le Pen was thus convicted once again on appeal in the fraud case, but the 57-year-old French politician can still run for president. She intends to use a legal maneuver to circumvent the fact that, in principle, she would have to do so while wearing an ankle monitor. She received a sentence of 45 months of ineligibility to hold public office, of which 15 months are to be served and 30 months are suspended. But if you add the time she has already “served” since her conviction in the first instance, she would narrowly be eligible again for the April 2027 presidential election. “If you’re a presidential candidate, you must have complete freedom of movement,” she said as recently as last week. On Tuesday evening, she stated: “I’m appealing to the Court of Cassation, and pending a ruling, the sentence will be suspended. So I won’t have to wear that ankle monitor,” Le Pen said.
Le Pen hopes that the Court of Cassation will not issue a ruling until after the presidential campaign. If she is president by then, she might enjoy immunity. But it is uncertain whether the highest judges will allow the case to drag on that long.
For Le Pen, this ruling is of great political importance. After all, the chairwoman of Rassemblement National has for years been considered one of the strongest potential successors to Emmanuel Macron, but until now had always faced the threat that a conviction would definitively block her candidacy. Le Pen herself has already made it clear that she does not want to campaign while wearing an ankle monitor. In her response to the ruling, she said that the voters must ultimately have the final say and that she will run for office in 2027.
At the same time, within her party, the name of Jordan Bardella is being strongly put forward as an alternative. The 30-year-old party chairman is seen as the logical successor should Le Pen ultimately be barred from or choose not to participate. Furthermore, the case remains subject to further appeal before the French Court of Cassation, which makes the final outcome uncertain.
©picture alliance / MAXPPP | Olivier Corsan (staff) - illustrative image