Marine Le Pen appeal verdict: Why this moment matters for France

Image source, AFP via Getty Images Image caption, Marine Le Pen has steered her National Rally to electoral success and now her fate is in the hands of the Paris appeal court By Paul Kirby Europe Digital Editor Published 54 minutes ago Marine Le Pen will find out on Tuesday whether or not she can run for the French presidency in next year's elections, when a Paris appeal court decides at 13:30 (11:30 GMT) whether to uphold an embezzlement conviction against her. Le Pen, the 57-year-old leader of National Rally, has already run for president three times and came second to Emmanuel Macron in 2022 and 2017. With under 10 months to go before the vote, she leads in the polls. If she does not run her, young lieutenant, Jordan Bardella, will stand in her place, so the verdict could have far-reaching consequences for France. What is the appeal about? This appeal verdict will decide Le Pen's political future and in effect fire the starting pistol on the presidential race. The first round is on 18 April 2027, and the run-off is on 2 May. She was barred from holding public office for five years on 31 March 2025 when a court found her guilty of embezzling €1.4m (£1.2m) in European Parliament (EP) funds to pay her own party employees from 2004-16 instead of parliamentary assistants. Le Pen was a member of the EP (MEP) from 2004-17. She was also given a four-year jail term, two suspended and two to be served at home with an electronic tag. Le Pen was found to have either approved or to have tolerated the fake jobs scheme, and the verdict ruled her out of the 2027 election. During the appeal, heard in January and February, Le Pen denied organising the scam but did admit to "a mistake" that led to some parliamentary aides working "for the benefit of the party". Prosecutors want the original five-year ban on public office to stand, with a four-year jail term now including one year served with an electronic tag and three years suspended. Le Pen says she is not afraid of the decision, but believes it is "not possible" to run for president if the judges decide she must wear a tag. Who is Marine Le Pen? Image source, AFP via Getty Images Image caption, The judges in 2025 found that Marine Le Pen was "at the heart" of the fake jobs scheme in the European Parliament The youngest daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, in 2011 Marine took over the leadership of the far-right National Front he had run since 1972, with a mission to "detoxify" his brand. Eventually she broke with her father entirely in 2015, expelling him from the party over his views on the Holocaust. Three years later, she rebranded the party Rassemblement National - National Rally (RN) - and although she was twice defeated by Emmanuel Macron for the presidency, in 2024 she steered RN to its best-ever election performance, with a hard-right alliance of 143 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly. She has painted herself as a victim of French justice, singled out for a "difference in treatment" from other leade