Overview
- The Paris appeals trial opens this week on an accelerated timetable, runs to February 12, and is expected to yield a judgment in summer 2026.
- The outcome will determine whether Marine Le Pen can contest the 2027 presidential election or give way to RN leader Jordan Bardella, who leads in recent polls.
- Le Pen was convicted in March 2025 and received four years’ imprisonment (partly suspended), a €100,000 fine, and an immediate five-year ineligibility that remains in force during the appeal.
- Prosecutors say EU parliamentary assistant salaries were diverted to the party from 2004 to 2016, with losses estimated at about €4.1–€4.3 million and roughly €1.1 million repaid, while Le Pen denies wrongdoing and calls the case political.
- Twelve of the original 24 defendants did not appeal, while co-defendant Louis Alliot remains in the dock, and the court’s president has warned against foreign interference after a report of potential U.S. sanctions against judges from the first trial.