Paris Appeals Court Confirms Le Pen Conviction but Softens Sentence for 2027 Election

The 57-year-old must also serve a one-year prison sentence with an electronic ankle bracelet; two further years of the three-year total sentence were suspended. In addition, there is a fine of 100,000 euros.

The judges found Le Pen guilty in principle of having misused EU funds with her then-party, the Front National — now the Rassemblement National — between 2004 and 2016. Specifically, funds intended for parliamentary assistants in the European Parliament had flowed to people who in fact worked at least in part for the party.

Among them, according to the court, were bodyguards and Le Pen's personal secretary. The judges, however, did not find any personal enrichment of the politician herself.

Five Weeks of Main Hearings in Fast-Forward

At the verdict announcement, Le Pen was personally present according to court sources and initially left the room without a public statement. The presiding judge, Agi, spoke in the court's press release of serious and lasting violations of democratic rules.

At the same time, the chamber had preserved the proportionality of the sanction with regard to passive voting rights. The freedom to stand as a candidate and the freedom of voters were conditions of democratic expression. In doing so, the court explicitly tied its mitigation of the sentence to the upcoming presidential election.

After the verdict, Le Pen went to the Rassemblement National party headquarters, where she met with party leader Jordan Bardella and other party officials. A statement was expected for the main evening news broadcast on TF1.

A central point of contention even before the appeal hearing had been whether Le Pen could campaign under the conditions of an ankle bracelet. She had declared at the beginning of July on the channel LCI that she could not imagine running a campaign under those conditions.

Ankle Bracelet as a Hurdle for the Campaign

Her defense had previously pleaded for an acquittal. The lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut spoke after the ruling of a good beginning and said he was partly satisfied with the mitigation of the sentence. He emphasized that the president of the chamber had explicitly addressed the freedom of voters.

The prosecution had requested in the appeal, among other things, the provisional deprivation of passive voting rights and a prison sentence. Observers were skeptical about possible further legal remedies, such as a cassation appeal.

Should Le Pen ultimately not run herself, she had already announced that she would then support the current party leader, Jordan Bardella, as the candidate. The 30-year-old is now seen in polls slightly ahead of Le Pen for the first round of the presidential election.

Both are well ahead of possible candidates from other parties for the first round. At the same time, Bardella had recently also set his own substantive accents, for example on raising the retirement age, while Le Pen stuck to the party's core promise of retirement at 60 or 62 for long-term employees.

Bardella Stands Ready — and Remains in the Sights

France's political reactions on Tuesday were pronounced. Marine Tondelier, national secretary of the Greens, spoke of great leniency by the judiciary toward Le Pen, particularly with regard to the swift handling of the appeal proceedings.

Academics also interpreted the verdict as politically charged. Political scientist Olivier Guyottot told the channel France 24 that the judges had been influenced by the political dimension of their decision; the press release showed that they followed the thesis that the election must take place and that the vote of the citizens must decide.

Former communications advisor Arnaud Stéphan, who had co-organized Le Pen's 2022 presidential campaign and has since broken with the party, warned of a double campaign — that is, a parallel candidacy of Le Pen and Bardella.

At the same time, further investigations in the orbit of the Rassemblement National remain virulent. At the end of June, the European Public Prosecutor's Office had searched several RN service providers on suspicion of embezzlement of public funds.

French media also reported on possible investigations in connection with Bardella's earlier activities as a parliamentary assistant in the European Parliament. Should these suspicions be substantiated, it would complicate the party's calculations.

Political Reactions and the Question of Legality

The first-instance verdict of March 2025 had still ordered the immediate ban on passive voting rights and had been criticized by Le Pen and her party as a denial of democracy and a pure breach of the rule of law. Under the hashtag #SauvonsLaDémocratie, a solidarity rally had been organized at the time.

Constitutional law scholar Camille Aynès of the Université Paris Nanterre recalled that many officeholders in the past had been sentenced to five years of ineligibility for less serious offenses. The appeals chamber, by contrast, had chosen a significantly milder path.

On balance, it should be noted: the appeals chamber confirmed the basic legal finding of the first instance — namely, the charge of systematic embezzlement of EU funds to the detriment of the European taxpayer. But in assessing the sentence, it explicitly took into account the political context of the presidential election.

For Le Pen, this means a mixture of defeat and opportunity: the conviction stands, but a candidacy in 2027 is at least arithmetically not ruled out, provided no further legal remedies reopen the verdict. Politically, the coming months are likely to be decisive in determining whether she actually runs herself or whether Jordan Bardella takes the lead of the next campaign.