“The Paris appeals court’s ruling is a historic moment, as it’s the first time a French presidential candidate’s fate hinges on a court decision,” French daily Le Monde reported on April 7. That day, the court found Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally party, guilty of embezzlement. It reduced her ban from running for public office to 45 months—30 months of which are suspended—meaning she can still run in France’s 2027 presidential election, but she’ll have to wear an electronic monitoring device while campaigning. According to AFP, this verdict casts a long shadow over her bid for the presidency next April.
Marine Le Pen (file photo)
Under the ruling, Le Pen was sentenced to three years in prison—two years suspended, and one year under electronic monitoring outside prison. Le Monde reported that Le Pen has already served the 15-month portion of the 45-month ban from public office that wasn’t suspended. Since the original ban remained in effect during her appeal, she started serving that time on March 31, 2025, when the lower court convicted her—exactly 15 months ago.
Now, everyone’s watching to see if Le Pen will still run for president while on electronic monitoring. Before the court’s decision, she said she wouldn’t run under such conditions, arguing it would disrupt her campaign and hurt her standing as a candidate. But she hasn’t confirmed her final move yet.
Back in March last year, a French court found Le Pen and 24 former European Parliament members, aides, and accountants from her party guilty of systematically embezzling European Parliament funds between 2004 and 2016. The money was used to pay staff salaries for party work inside France, not in the EU parliament. Le Pen was convicted of embezzlement, sentenced to four years in prison—two years suspended—and banned from running for public office for five years. That scuttled her long-planned fourth run for the French presidency. She immediately appealed, calling the case a “political witch hunt.”
AFP notes that recent polls show the far right leading in the first round of voting next year. European media are glued to the ruling, with German outlets calling the day “pivotal” for both Le Pen and France.
