A Paris appeals court on Tuesday declared Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzlement but softened the punishment enough to put a 2027 presidential run back within reach, depending on a condition she has said may be impossible to accept.
The court reduced her ban on holding elected office from five years to 45 months, two-thirds of which are suspended. It also cut her prison sentence from four years to three, with two of those years suspended. The remaining year is to be served at home with an electronic bracelet.
That bracelet is the central question now. Before the verdict, Le Pen said that if the court imposed constraints making it difficult to campaign freely, she might not run. She had specifically named electronic monitoring as a potential dealbreaker. According to ABC News, she said in an interview last week, "If I'm allowed to be a candidate but am effectively prevented from campaigning freely, then you understand that wouldn't be possible."
Le Pen, 57, was expected to share her decision in a television interview Tuesday evening.
The original conviction, handed down in March 2025, found Le Pen and other members of her National Rally party guilty of misusing European Parliament funds. The scheme involved paying party staff with money designated for EU parliamentary assistants between 2004 and 2016. She has denied any wrongdoing throughout the proceedings.
Prosecutors had asked the appeals court to impose four years in prison, three suspended, plus a full five-year ban on holding office. The appeals court gave her less than that on both counts.
If Le Pen decides the bracelet makes a campaign impossible, her protege Jordan Bardella would step in as the party's candidate. Bardella, 30, is the current president of the anti-immigration, EU-skeptic National Rally and has been positioned as a successor figure within the party.
Le Pen has made three previous bids for the French presidency. A fourth run has been her stated goal throughout the legal proceedings.
