Today in Paris, the appeal trial of Marine Le Pen and her party, the National Rally, along with 11 other defendants, began. This legal process will determine the eligibility of the French far-right leader to run in the 2027 presidential elections and will significantly impact her political future. Le Pen, who has three times lost the race to the Élysée Palace, was convicted in March of misusing public funds and sentenced to four years in prison, two of which are suspended with an electronic ankle bracelet. She was also fined 100,000 euros and, most importantly, banned from holding any public office for five years, with the ban taking effect immediately. This latter measure prevents her from running for any elected office, including the presidency, or being re-elected to the National Assembly. To pave the way for a presidential bid, the leader of the National Rally's parliamentary group needs an acquittal or a reduction of her ineligibility sentence, which has already begun to be counted under the provisional enforcement of the ruling pending the appeal court's decision this summer. During the initial trial, Le Pen was accused of creating a "system" between 2004 and 2016 to embezzle funds allocated by the European Parliament to its members to pay assistants for their tasks in Brussels and Strasbourg. According to the prosecution and the European Parliament, which is a civil party in the case, these assistants were in fact working exclusively for the National Front party (now the National Rally) or its leaders. The court set the compensation at 3.2 million euros, after deducting 1.1 million euros already paid by some of the 25 defendants.
