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PARIS (CN) — France’s extreme-right leader Marine Le Pen arrived in court Tuesday to fight an embezzlement conviction with critical political consequences: Her sentence included a five-year-ban on running for public office, meaning she can’t run for president in 2027 unless she wins her appeal.
“My sole line of defense for this appeal trial will be the same as during the first instance trial: to tell the truth,” Le Pen wrote on X on Monday. “The case will be reset from scratch and will be judged by new magistrates. I hope to be better heard, and to convince them of my innocence.”
In March, Le Pen — and 23 other members of her National Rally party, known as the RN — were convicted of embezzling about $3.1 million in European Union funds over roughly 12 years. Investigators said RN lawmakers received monthly paychecks of about $24,500 that were supposed to go to parliamentary assistants in Brussels.
Le Pen was found guilty and handed a four-year prison sentence alongside a $108,000 fine. But the ineligibility component was the most shocking.
When the RN was run byJean-Marie Le Pen, Marine’s father, its outwardly xenophobic and antisemitic rhetoric made the party too taboo for mainstream politics. But in recent years, the younger Le Pen and her protégée Jordan Bardella have cleaned up the party’s reputation and made it a serious contender for a presidential win in 2027.
Le Pen likened the verdict to a political witch hunt. She has maintained her innocence and is appealing the verdict alongside 10 others.
“My appeal concerns criminal and civil considerations,” Le Pen told the courtroom Tuesday evening. “We have never hidden anything in the publication of our organizational charts, or in the contracts filed, or in multiple press articles.”
Ahead of the first hearings on Tuesday, the Court of Appeal of Paris had effectively been transformed into a newsroom; numerous press zones were packed with reporters and wide marble hallways lined with booms. Outside, photographers moved like sparrows to follow Le Pen and the other defendants into the courthouse.
“There’s very strong political news [in France today]: the budget vote, the preparation for the municipal elections,” Ludovic Renard, a political scientist at Sciences Po Bordeaux, said. “But here, we’re with Marine Le Pen, not only the preparation for the 2027 presidential election, but beyond that, on an important political moment because it puts at the relationship between justice and politics at stake.”
The outcome of the appeal will have a critical influence France’s future political makeup. Renard sees three possible scenarios; if Le Pen is fully acquitted, she will emerge empowered in the runup to 2027. If she’s convicted again but permitted to run, she will have to fend off attacks about her guilt, which could hurt the campaign. And finally, if she remains barred from running from office, that could strengthen her argument the trial was political.
Such a scenario could have an impact beyond France, aligning with the rising sentiment among some largely right-wing politicians that the justice system is out to get them.
“We see the judicial stakes regarding [Donald Trump],” Renard said. “Will democracy ultimately triumph? Or will justice catch up with a government with authoritarian drifts of power? It’s really a very strong issue.”
When the hearings opened at 1:30 p.m., Michèle Agi, the presiding judge, detailed the previous investigation and its conclusions. The court is composed of a president, two professional judicial assessors and one additional magistrate; there is no civilian jury.
The afternoon was slow; outside the courthouse, one woman commented that a big local media organization had three people in the room but hadn’t updated their live feed in over an hour.
Wednesday will be dedicated to procedural questions and judges are expected to dive into the heart of the case on Thursday, when defendants take the stand.
Le Pen is set to testify on Jan. 20 and 21.
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