Former French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen's hopes of standing in next year's election are up in the air after a judge on Tuesday upheld her conviction for embezzlement of European Parliamentary funds.
Le Pen came second to President Emmanuel Macron in both 2017 and 2022, and has been well placed in opinion polls for the 2027 election.
In March 2025, the 57-year-old former leader of the far-right National Rally party received a five-year ban from holding public office after being found guilty of using parliamentary funds to pay her own party employees, rather than parliamentary assistants.
She was also given a four-year jail term, two years of which were suspended, with the other two to be served at home wearing an electronic tag, a ruling she had been seeking to overturn, to allow her a fourth run at the presidency next year.
The court fined her 100,000 euros ($114,362) but reduced her public office ban from five years to 45 months, 30 of which are suspended, and also cut the jail term to three years, two of which are suspended, and one is wearing an electronic tag.
