Marine Le Pen has moved closer to a fourth bid for the French presidency after the Paris Court of Appeal on July 7 reduced the ineligibility imposed on her in the case over the misuse of European Parliament funds allocated for parliamentary assistants.
The appeal court confirmed that the leader of the National Rally (RN), formerly the Front National (FN), was guilty of misusing European Parliament funds and of complicity in the scheme. It cut her ban from public office from the five years handed down at first instance to 45 months, 30 of them suspended.
Her prison sentence was reduced to three years, two of them suspended, with the remaining year to be served at home under electronic monitoring. A €100,000 fine formed part of the original penalty.
The court found that the 15 months of the ban still to be served were already covered by the provisional execution of her 2025 conviction, meaning that Marine Le Pen remains eligible to run.
Le Pen has been ineligible since the Paris Correctional Court convicted her on March 31, 2025, when it imposed a five-year ban that took effect immediately.
“The court finds that the instigator is a more dangerous accomplice than the person who provides help or assistance,” the presiding judge said.
The ruling removes the principal legal obstacle that had threatened Le Pen’s ability to contest France’s 2027 presidential election, the first round of which is set for April 18 and the run-off for May 2.
The decision is a victory for the French right-wing party, which has maintained throughout the proceedings that Le Pen should remain its presidential candidate.
The electronic tag attached to her prison term remains a potential obstacle, though.
In a July 2, 2026 interview with LCI, Le Pen said that “when you’re a presidential candidate, you have to be completely free to move about” and that this would not be possible “if you’re wearing an electronic tag”.
Prosecutors had described Le Pen as the head of the arrangement, which they said allowed some €1.4 million to be diverted and which was built up under her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. They asked the court on February 3, 2026 for a five-year ban without immediate effect, four years in prison with one to be served under electronic monitoring, and a €100,000 fine.
The appeal ruling also confirmed convictions for several other figures linked to the case. Louis Aliot, mayor of Perpignan, southern France, and an RN vice-president, received a one-year suspended sentence and a two-year suspended ban, allowing him to keep his mayoralty.
Nicolas Bay, a sitting MEP, and Bruno Gollnisch, a former MEP, were also convicted, though their sentences varied. The court’s reasoning emphasised that a party leader bears particular responsibility for ensuring compliance with financial rules.
The first-instance court found that the party’s system had diverted more than €4 million of European Parliament funds between 2004 and 2016, using money intended for assistants in Brussels to pay party staff in France.
During the appeal trial, the RN denied operating any such system and said it had acted in “good faith”. Le Pen has consistently denied wrongdoing.
The March 2025 verdict drew condemnation from US President Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance, who cast it as politically motivated.
President Emmanuel Macron cannot seek a third consecutive term, and Le Pen has led early polling for the contest, giving the ruling wide significance for the race.
Marine Le Pen is expected to respond in a television interview on the evening of July 7, having left the court without speaking to reporters. She may still challenge the ruling before the Court of Cassation, France’s highest court, within 10 days, though it is unclear whether such an appeal would suspend the sentence.
If she decides not to run, the RN is expected to field its president, Jordan Bardella, 30, who has led the party since 2022 and headed its lists in the 2024 European Parliament and legislative elections.
If she decides not to run, it will be the first presidential election since 1988 without a member of the Le Pen family on the ballot, ending more than three decades in which the family has been the dominant force of the French right-wing presidential campaigns.
