Marine Le Pen Is Appealing a Decision to Bar Her From Office.
The New York Times • • general
Key Points:
- Marine Le Pen has launched an appeal against her embezzlement conviction, which includes a five-year ban from holding elected office, potentially barring her from running for president in 2027.
- The conviction stems from a 2025 ruling that found her National Rally party guilty of misusing nearly $5 million in European Parliament funds to pay assistants for non-EU-related work between 2004 and 2016.
- If the ban is overturned, Le Pen, whose party leads national polls, could become France’s first far-right president since World War II; if not, her protégé Jordan Bardella is expected to run as the National Rally candidate.
- Le Pen has spent years trying to distance her party from its
