Marine Le Pen, the 57-year-old leader of France's National Rally (RN), will learn on Tuesday, 5 July 2026, whether she can stand in the 2027 French presidential election. The Paris appeal court is set to decide at 13:30 local time (11:30 GMT) whether to uphold an embezzlement conviction against her.

Le Pen was barred from holding public office for five years on 31 March 2025 after a court found her guilty of embezzling €1.4 million (£1.2 million) in European Parliament funds. The funds were used to pay party employees from 2004 to 2016 instead of parliamentary assistants, as required.

Despite this, Le Pen has led the National Rally to significant electoral success. In 2024, she rebranded the party from Rassemblement National and guided a hard-right alliance to win 143 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, marking the party's best-ever performance. She has run for president three times, finishing second to Emmanuel Macron in both 2017 and 2022, and currently leads in the polls with less than ten months until the next election.

If the court bars Le Pen from running, her young lieutenant Jordan Bardella is expected to stand in her place. Le Pen has stated she would support Bardella with "great energy, great conviction and great confidence" and said that if she were president, Bardella would be prime minister. However, political opponents argue that Le Pen poses a greater threat in a potential second-round run-off due to Bardella's relative inexperience.

Following the verdict, Le Pen plans to announce her intentions on the main 20:00 French TV news programme.

Sources