Marine Le Pen, head of the Rassemblement National (RN, formerly Front National, FN) MPs, at the trial in the first instance of the FN parliamentary assistants, in Paris, on November 26, 2024. ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP
Just like the original trial in the fall of 2024, Marine Le Pen's appeal in the embezzlement case over her party's alleged fake European parliamentary assistant jobs is shaping up to be one of the defining judicial moments of 2026.
On March 31, 2025, the leader of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) was sentenced to a five-year ban from holding public office, a ruling that would bar her from running in the 2027 presidential election. The appeals court's decision on that penalty is the central question of the hearings, which open on Tuesday, January 13, and are scheduled to run through February 12. Here's what is at stake in this new trial.
What is Le Pen accused of?
The 57-year-old MP was convicted in the first trial, on March 31, 2025, of "embezzlement of public funds" and "complicity in the embezzlement of public funds." She was accused of using European Parliament funds intended for parliamentary assistants to pay employees doing work for her party, which she chaired from 2011 to 2021. The court ruled that Le Pen stood at the center of a "system" intended to divert European Union funds, estimating the losses at about €4.4 million.
