Marine Le Pen, former leader of the far-right Rassemblement National, at a Paris criminal court for her trial over the alleged misuse of European public funds, November 18, 2024. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP
Marine Le Pen's political future will be decided in an appeals trial starting Tuesday, January 13. The former president of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) was sentenced on March 31, 2025, to a four-year prison sentence, including two years suspended and the other two to be served at home with an electronic bracelet, and a five-year ban on holding elected office after being found guilty of embezzlement of public funds in a case involving fake European Parliamentary assistant jobs. The appeals trial will run until February 12, and the decision is not expected before the summer. For now, Le Pen has lost her right to vote and is no longer eligible for office, but a precedent set by France's Constitutional Council has allowed her to complete her current term as a national lawmaker.
In the not-unlikely event of another conviction, Le Pen could face up to 10 years in prison and would have nearly no chance of being able run in the 2027 presidential election. If her ban on standing in elections were confirmed, Le Pen said in early November 2025, she would "obviously not" run, even pending a decision from the Cour de Cassation, France's highest court of appeals. But she has reiterated that it was "absolutely certain" she would seek the presidency again if she is allowed to run, and has admitted she is still holding to a "tiny bit of hope."
