Marine Le Pen sentenced on appeal, eligible for 2027 presidential election
Paris appeal court has sentenced Marine Le Pen to three years in prison, with one year firm, and ineligibility reduced to 15 months already served. She is standing as a candidate for the Élysée.
Sentenced but candidacy confirmed: Marine Le Pen confirms her candidacy for the 2027 presidential election
Paris appeal court sentenced Marine Le Pen on Tuesday 7 July to three years in prison — two years suspended and one year firm, served under electronic monitoring — for misappropriation of public funds, in the affair of National Front parliamentary assistants at the European Parliament. The ineligibility sentence was set at 45 months, of which 30 months are suspended. According to touteleurope.eu, this decision leaves a decisive political opening for the Rassemblement national leader.
The firm ineligibility sentence, reduced to 15 months, is considered already served. Its expiry on 30 June 2026 results from the provisional execution pronounced in first instance on 31 March 2025. Marine Le Pen is therefore legally eligible for the presidential election on 18 April and 2 May 2027, and can launch her campaign.
A cassation appeal to suspend the sentence
Appearing on TF1's 20:00 news programme the evening of the judgment, Marine Le Pen announced she would appeal to the Court of Cassation and confirmed her presidential candidacy. The appeal produces a suspensive effect on the appeal court's ruling: as long as the Court of Cassation has not ruled, the firm prison sentence with electronic monitoring is not enforced.
The Court of Cassation, the supreme court of the French judicial system, does not rule on the substance of the case but on the proper application of the law. It may either fully or partially quash the appeal court's decision and refer the case to a new court, or reject the appeal, in which case the sentence pronounced on appeal becomes enforceable. Standard proceedings take between 12 and 18 months, but the Court has communicated its intention to rule before the first round of the presidential election.
Pending this ruling, Marine Le Pen can therefore campaign without wearing electronic monitoring.
The question of electronic monitoring
The former RN president had repeatedly stated she would withdraw her candidacy if she had to campaign hampered by electronic surveillance. She nevertheless has another option: like any convicted person, she can benefit from a sentence reduction of up to six months, which would leave her free to move about from the start of 2027.
A system of fictitious posts between 2004 and 2016
The National Front and its leaders at the time were found guilty of having organised a system of fictitious posts at the European Parliament between 2004 and 2016. Employees, paid from funds intended for European parliamentary assistants, actually worked on party activities rather than for the MEPs to whom they were officially attached.
In first instance, Paris criminal court assessed the damages at 2.9 million euros. The European Parliament, as a civil party, estimated it at 4.6 million euros. "The facts are serious still, because they lasted [...] and only ended with the complaint filed by the president of the European Parliament," said appeal court president Michèle Agi, during reading of the ruling.
Eleven people and the RN sentenced again
Marine Le Pen is not the only person affected by this case. In first instance, in March 2025, 24 people and the party had been sentenced. Eleven of them, and the RN, had appealed to Paris appeal court: the party itself; five former MEPs, Bruno Gollnisch, Fernand Le Rachinel, Louis Aliot and Nicolas Bay, alongside Marine Le Pen; four former parliamentary assistants, Catherine Griset, Guillaume L'Huillier, Julien Odoul and Timothée Houssin; as well as the party accountant and treasurer, Nicolas Crochet and Wallerand de Saint-Just.
All were sentenced again on Tuesday by the appeal court. Jeanne Pavard, an assistant at the time of the facts, had withdrawn on 22 October 2025, making the first instance sentence final in her case.
The public prosecutor's office requirements
On 3 February 2026, the public prosecutor's office of Paris appeal court had sought against Marine Le Pen four years in prison, including one year firm served under electronic surveillance, a 100,000 euro fine and five years' ineligibility, but without provisional execution. The court finally pronounced a sentence slightly lower than the prosecution's request on total prison duration, but maintained the fine at 100,000 euros, and reduced the firm ineligibility period to a level allowing the Pas-de-Calais deputy to stand in the 2027 election.
Source: Le Monde - Justice