A Paris appeals court has upheld Marine Le Pen’s conviction for diverting European Parliament funds while reducing her punishment enough to reopen her path to France’s 2027 presidential election. The July 7 ruling left the National Rally figure with a three-year prison sentence, two years suspended, and one year to be served at home under electronic monitoring, as well as a €100,000 fine.
The court imposed 45 months of electoral ineligibility but suspended 30 months. Because the remaining 15 months were counted from the immediately enforceable first judgment on March 31, 2025, that portion is already complete. Le Pen announced that evening that she would run for president and appeal to the Court of Cassation, France’s highest court for criminal cases.
A judgment with two political readings
The court’s French-language summary said the scheme used money intended for European parliamentary assistants to pay people working for the national party. It found that the practice lasted more than 11 years, involved 28 contracts, and caused €2.8 million in losses to the European Parliament. The court also said the defendants did not enrich themselves personally and that the national party was the beneficiary.
The judges treated the conduct as a serious breach of public trust. At the same time, they said an ineligibility penalty had to be proportionate and weighed against both freedom to stand for office and voters’ freedom of choice. They concluded that the 15 months already served were sufficient, a balance that preserved the conviction while removing the immediate electoral barrier.
Le Pen and her allies emphasized the second half of that outcome. According to the Associated Press, she said her appeal would clear her and declared that she would enter the presidential race. Her lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, described the defense as partly satisfied. Le Pen continues to deny criminal wrongdoing, although she acknowledged during the appeal proceedings that the party had made a mistake.
Opponents centered the conviction rather than her restored eligibility. In reactions collected by Reuters, Socialist leader Olivier Faure said a second conviction should lead her to withdraw, while France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon said the RN should be defeated at the ballot box. Green leader Marine Tondelier argued that the shortened sentence showed leniency rather than the judicial conspiracy alleged by the RN.
Outside France, the campaign eclipses the sentence
Much international reporting led with the electoral consequence. Germany’s public broadcaster Tagesschau stressed that the time already served made another candidacy possible, while Spain’s El País framed the day around the tension between a confirmed conviction, possible electronic monitoring, and Le Pen’s decision to run anyway.
That emphasis reflects the scale of the political consequence, but it can obscure what the judges confirmed. The case was not dismissed, and the appeal court again found that European funds had been used for national party work. The European Parliament’s lawyer, Patrick Maisonneuve, welcomed that finding as confirmation that public money had been diverted.
The ruling also changes the immediate role of Jordan Bardella, the RN president who was widely viewed as the party’s substitute candidate if Le Pen remained barred. The French parliamentary channel LCP described the decision as politically consequential because it left Le Pen eligible while retaining a custodial sentence that may be served under electronic monitoring.
What to watch
The next legal question is the Court of Cassation appeal. That court reviews whether the law and procedure were applied correctly rather than retrying the facts. AP reported that it can rule before the election, but a reversal could produce further proceedings and renewed uncertainty over the campaign timetable.
The electronic-monitoring order is also not yet the simple campaign image suggested by some headlines. Its practical terms are to be set by a sentence-enforcement judge, and the higher-court appeal may suspend its implementation while the case remains under review. Le Pen is therefore presenting herself as a confirmed candidate, but her final legal position is not settled.
The concrete milestones are the ten-day period from July 7 for filing a Court of Cassation appeal, the higher court’s expected ruling before the election, and France’s presidential votes on April 18 and May 2, 2027.
Sources
- Paris Court of Appeal, France: official ruling summary and key figures, French.
- LCP-Assemblée nationale, France: sentence and domestic political consequences, French.
- Reuters via Internazionale, international: reactions from lawyers and French party leaders, English and Italian.
- Associated Press, United States: Le Pen’s candidacy announcement and legal next steps.
- Tagesschau, Germany: German coverage of the conviction and candidacy, German.
- El País, Spain: Spanish framing of the ruling and campaign decision, Spanish.
This article was researched and drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. French-language primary and news sources were checked directly, alongside English, German, Spanish, and Italian coverage.