Marine Le Pen finished a whirlwind day of legal drama by launching her fourth bid for the French presidency and a high-stakes appeal of her latest embezzlement conviction.
The longtime face of the French far right arrived at court on Tuesday banned from running for public office after being found guilty of misusing European Parliament funds last year, and the expectation was that the decision would not go her way. But while the three-judge panel who heard Le Pen’s appeal upheld her conviction, it revised the lower court’s election ban in a manner that would allow her to run in the 2027 presidential race — the first round of which takes place April 18.
However, the appeals court also sentenced Le Pen to three years in prison, two of them suspended and one to be served under house arrest. As recently as last week, the far-right leader had said she would not run for president if wearing an ankle monitor and would cede the role to her party’s president, Jordan Bardella.
Instead of accepting the court’s ruling and hoping she could get her sentence knocked down to six months for good behavior, the 57-year-old took a major gamble: She announced on prime-time television that she would once again appeal, this time to France’s highest court.
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