PARIS: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen faces a make-or-break court ruling on July 7 on her bid to overturn an election ban, a verdict that could knock her out of the 2027 presidential race or clear the way for her to seek the top job for a fourth time.
France’s political class is anxiously awaiting the appeal ruling, which will determine whether Le Pen, 57, or her protégé Jordan Bardella, 30, carries the far-right banner into an election less than a year away, with their anti-immigration National Rally (RN) still riding high in the polls.
A French court in March 2025 handed Le Pen a five-year ban from public office and a four-year jail sentence for embezzling funds from the European Parliament, pending appeal, in a seismic verdict that reverberated beyond France and drew harsh words from US President Donald Trump and other right-wing leaders.
With the RN closer than ever to winning power in France, the European Union’s second-biggest economy, party leaders have been forced to contend with unexpectedly-early succession planning, and its impact on policy lines.
Asked during a foreign trip last month if he was readying to be the RN’s presidential candidate, Bardella delivered his stock response: “I am until further notice preparing to be (Le Pen’s) prime minister.”
