The trial of far-right French leader Marine Le Pen for alleged misuse of European Parliament funds ends today, and one question hangs in the air above all - whether she will be able to run in next year's presidential election.
Le Pen (57) appealed a March 2025 ruling that found her and more than 20 members of her National Rally party guilty of misusing European Parliament funds in hiring assistants from 2004 to 2016, when she was also banned from holding elected office for five years.
She denies accusations that she was at the center of a fraud scheme aimed at siphoning off European Union funds.
The result of the appeal process will be announced later, probably before the summer.
The outcome of that five-week trial in the Paris appeals court could change the course of the 2027 French presidential election.
Le Pen was considered the leading candidate to succeed centrist President Emmanuel Macron in the 2027 election until a Paris court banned her from holding public office over allegations of misuse of public funds.
She has twice been in the second round of elections against Macron, in 2017 and 2022, and her National Rally party has been at the top of the polls in recent years.
The appeal process is an opportunity to be acquitted of the charges, which would open her path to the presidential race.
If found guilty, Le Pen could be banned from holding elected office. In that case, as she has previously said, her 30-year-old protégé Jordan Bardella would run for the party in her place.
Bardela's popularity has grown in recent years, but some observers have pointed to his relative lack of experience, particularly in international and economic issues, as a potential weakness for a presidential candidacy.
Along with Le Pen, ten other officials who were convicted last year are also on appeal, as is the party itself.
They are seeking to overturn convictions for misuse of funds intended for European Parliament assistants between 2004 and 2016, while Le Pen was a member of the EP.
Prosecutors allege that she employed several people as assistants at the European Parliament, but that they instead worked for her. The investigation found that some of these people had no contact with members of the European Parliament, and one served as her bodyguard, in violation of parliamentary regulations.
In March 2025, a Paris court ruled that Le Pen was at the center of a “fraudulent system” that her party used to siphon off 2,9 million euros in European Parliament funds. She was then banned from holding elected public office for five years, given two years of house arrest with an electronic bracelet, and given a further two years of probation.
Le Pen condemned it as a "democratic scandal", while anti-corruption activists said her verdict showed that no one is above the law.
Previous verdicts are not expected to affect the trial, which ends today and has started anew.
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