Overview
- Marine Le Pen is appealing her March conviction for misappropriating European Parliament funds, which carried four years in prison, a €100,000 fine and five years of ineligibility enforceable immediately.
- Because the sanction is provisionally executable, she is currently legally excluded from the 2027 presidential race unless the appeals court changes that status.
- Hearings run roughly January 13 to February 12 in Paris, with 12 of the 24 first‑instance defendants and the party retried; Le Pen is due to be questioned around January 20–21.
- Her legal team has shifted to a technical defense citing regulatory ambiguity and lack of intent, aiming to lift the provisional enforcement or secure an ineligibility term short enough to preserve a 2027 run.
- Inside the RN, a contingency centers on Jordan Bardella, increasingly described as the party’s natural candidate in polling, as leaders impose restrained messaging ahead of the hearing.