Marine Le Pen appeal: Election ban lifted but prison sentence upheld
The ruling means the far-right MP is legally free to stand in 2027, although she has said she would not run if required to wear an electronic bracelet
Marine Le Pen has consistently said she would not run for the 2027 presidential election is subjected to wearing an electronic bracelet
Abaca Press / Alamy Stock Photo
The Paris appeals court has partly upheld Marine Le Pen's appeal, lifting her five-year ban on running for public office but keeping a prison sentence that is likely to include an electronic bracelet.
Ms Le Pen has consistently said she would not be a candidate in the 2027 presidential election if she was subject to wearing an ankle bracelet.
The court partially upheld the original sentence from March 2025, but reduced the penalties to three years in prison (two suspended), with the third year to be served under an alternative such as an electronic ankle bracelet.
A ban on running for public office was reduced from five years to 45 months, with 30 of these suspended.
This makes her technically eligible to run in the 2027 presidential campaign, as the 15-month ban technically begins from the original ruling date of March 2025. A €100,000 fine was not overturned.
The court rejected arguments from her lawyers that the offence should have been treated as breach of trust rather than misappropriation of public funds, made during the appeals hearing earlier in January and February.
The ruling means Ms Le Pen is not barred from standing in the 2027 presidential election but is unlikely to do so.
She reaffirmed her comments that she would not run in the 2027 election if wearing a bracelet on July 2, however is yet to officially comment on today's ruling.
However, she is expected to challenge the appeals court decision before France’s highest court.
The decision leaves Rassemblement National (RN) president Jordan Bardella, 30, as the party’s expected candidate for the 2027 presidential race, although the nomination has yet to be formally confirmed.
The party will officially confirm its candidate at a later date – note several parties are yet to officially confirm their candidates for the spring election, set to be held over two rounds on April 18 and May 2, 2027.
Political commentators say that today’s ruling will mark the unofficial start of the campaign, as opposition parties collate their strategies against the RN, currently leading in all polls and hypothetical second round run-offs.
What does this mean for the far-right’s chances in 2027?
The RN always affirmed that the 2025 charge being overturned would result in Ms Le Pen being appointed as the party’s candidate for the 2027 presidential election.
Her protégé Jordan Bardella has been touted as a long-term presidential candidate, and in recent weeks RN leadership have placed their weight behind Mr Bardella as a candidate in the event Ms Le Pen could not - or chose not to - run.
The party insists that the manifesto will remain the same regardless of who its presidential candidate is.
President of the party since 2022, Mr Bardella has already led the RN in the 2024 EU elections (where the party gained over 31% of the vote in France and were the largest in France) and the 2024 legislative elections.
Mr Bardella consistently expressed that he wanted Ms Le Pen as the next president with himself taking the role of prime minister in the result of an RN victory at the legislative elections following the presidential campaign.
“To Marine, I want to say just this: you could count on me yesterday, you can count on me today, and you can count on me tomorrow,” he said in a social media post on Monday (July 6).
If he is to be the party’s presidential candidate however these plans will change, and as of now there is no clear candidate for the prime minister position among the party’s inner circle.
Rival parties were torn on whether Mr Bardella or Ms Le Pen is the more dangerous candidate to face, but general opinion is the experience of the latter outweighs any blemishes on her record.
However opinion polls consistently point to Jordan Bardella as the more popular of the two, and that in second round run-offs he would obtain a higher vote share than Ms Le Pen against rival candidates.
A presidential campaign led by Ms Le Pen – her fourth – would benefit from her significant experience of the process.
