A high-stakes appeal by far-right French politician Marine Le Pen starts on Tuesday against a ruling that banned her from running for public office for five years.
Le Pen, 57, was found guilty last year of embezzling EU funds and if the ban is upheld she will not be able to stand in the 2027 presidential election. She insists she has not committed “the slightest irregularity”.
Ahead of the appeal, the president of her National Rally party, Jordan Bardella, said barring her from the election would be “deeply worrying for democracy”.
Bardella said he would not stand for president next year but would instead seek the lower-ranking post of prime minister.
The case at the Paris Court of Appeal will last until 12 February but a ruling is not expected before the summer, well ahead of next year’s presidential vote.
Last year’s case centred on charges that Le Pen, along with more than 20 other senior party figures, hired assistants who worked on her RN party affairs rather than for the European Parliament which paid them.
The judge, Bénédicte de Perthuis, said Le Pen had been at the “heart of the system” that saw the embezzlement of €2.9m (£2.5m) worth of European funds.
Le Pen was given a four-year prison sentence – with two years suspended and the remaining two to be served with an electronic tag rather than in custody. She was handed a €100,000 (£82,635) fine and banned from seeking public office “with immediate effect”.
If she loses her appeal she could face an even longer jail term.
More than 20 RN figures were also found guilty in last year’s trial and the party was ordered to pay a €2m fine, with half the amount suspended.
Eleven of Le Pen’s colleagues are taking part in the Paris appeal, but 12 have decided not to challenge the original verdicts, including her sister Yann Le Pen who was given a one-year suspended prison term.
Addressing journalists on the eve of the appeal trial in the presence of Le Pen, Bardella said the RN leader would prove her innocence.
“It would be deeply worrying for democracy if the justice system were to deprive the French people of a presidential candidate, already qualified twice for the second round and now considered the undisputed favourite in the election,” he said.
Le Pen will be hoping the appeals court overturns the lower-court’s verdict and clears her name and path to run for the highest office in France for the fourth time.
A second possible outcome would be for the appeals panel to affirm the guilty verdict but remove the “immediate effect” clause. This would enable her to run even if she decided to appeal to the country’s highest court – the Court of Cassation – to overturn the guilty verdict.
A third outcome could see the appeals judges curtail the five-year ban sufficiently to enable Le Pen to register by the March 2027 deadline.
And a fourth would be to leave the lower court’s decisions intact. This would make it next to impossible to run – even though she would still be expected to take the case to the Court of Cassation.
With the presidential election expected around April 2027, much will depend on the substance – as well as the timing – of the judgements.