Paris/This Tuesday, the Paris Court of Appeal sentenced the leader of the French far-right, Marine Le Pen, to a 45-month disqualification sentence, although 30 of them are exempt from compliance unless there is recidivism, which reduces it to 15 firm months and she could technically run in the 2027 presidential elections.
Le Pen was also sentenced to three years in prison, two of which are exempt from compliance, so she will have to serve one year with an electronic bracelet under conditions to be set by the sentencing judge; as well as the payment of a fine of 100,000 euros.
The conditions and deadlines for that year in which she will have to wear the electronic bracelet will be crucial to knowing whether Le Pen will present her candidacy for the Elysée, since she had said she would not campaign if she had to wear that device.
The conditions and deadlines for that year in which she will have to wear the electronic bracelet will be crucial to knowing if Le Pen will present her candidacy for the Elysée
But what is notable is that the court considers that Le Pen has already served 15 months of a sentence for disqualification since March 31, 2025, the date of the ruling in the first instance, therefore, she meets the requirements and can legally run in the presidential elections on April 28 and May 2 of next year.
The leader of the National Rally left the court in the same way she entered: without saying a single word to the media.
Le Pen should give more clues about that candidacy or whether her dolphin, Jordan Bardella, will replace her in an interview scheduled this afternoon on the country’s most watched television network at the most watched hour, 8:00 p.m.
Her lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, told the press that he feels “partially” satisfied with the substantial reduction in the sentence imposed on his client and announced that they will analyze it this afternoon “in its entirety,” before making a statement about its possible consequences.
In any case, he pointed to “the freedom of voters to choose a candidate.”
The president of the court, when reading the part of the sentence that corresponded to Le Pen, stressed that a political leader has to be exemplary in compliance with the rules.
The judges considered her, as well as the other eleven defendants and her party, the National Rally (RN), guilty of the embezzlement of more than 2.8 million euros that the European Parliament allocated to pay parliamentary assistants and which were actually used for employees who worked for the political party.
For his part, the European Parliament’s lawyer, Patrick Maisonneuve, was satisfied with the court decision.
“The court confirmed the misappropriation of public funds suffered by the European Parliament; it recognized the creation, over many years, of an organization whose objective was the misappropriation of public funds. This was clearly serious,” he stated.
“Every citizen can ask themselves this question: can you be a candidate for presidential elections having been definitively convicted of embezzlement of public funds and European public funds?”
“They stole money from European taxpayers and French citizens (…). We have been saying it for years and it has been confirmed twice,” said the lawyer, referring to today’s appeal sentences and the 2025 first instance sentences.
Maisonneuve also pointed out that if those convicted – who have generally had sentences lower than those they were sentenced to in the first instance – do not file an appeal with the Supreme Court, “it means that Marine Le Pen and the National Rally accept their conviction for misappropriation of public funds and recognize that they are indeed guilty of that misappropriation of public funds.”
“And each citizen can ask themselves this question: can you be a candidate for presidential elections having been definitively convicted of embezzlement of public funds and European public funds?” the lawyer launched.
