Marine Le Pen's presidential hopes rest on French court verdict

PARIS, July 7 - After months of uncertainty, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen will learn on Tuesday from a Paris appeal court whether an electoral ban for illicit party financing will prevent her running in next year's presidential election.

Le Pen's presidential hopes have been in limbo since March 2025, when she received a five-year ban from public office for embezzling more than €4 million ($4.6 million) from the European Parliament. She denies guilt and appealed.

If the court upholds the ban, effectively barring the 57-year-old from making her fourth tilt at the presidency, her 30-year-old protege Jordan Bardella will become the candidate for her anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) party, the frontrunner in surveys.

Le Pen has spent more than a decade transforming the movement founded by her father Jean-Marie from a fringe nationalist party into what many view as a government-in-waiting, and such a verdict would be bitter for her personally.

But opinion polls suggest that if she has to step aside, party president Bardella, for all his lack of political experience, would still win the election's first round and qualify for a run-off of the top two candidates.

DETAILS OF LE PEN VERDICT WILL BE CRUCIAL

The verdict is due from 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT), and Le Pen is slated to give a prime-time TV interview on TF1 at 8 p.m., in which she may make an announcement on her political future.

The RN, the biggest party in parliament, has already had to plan for a potential future without her at its helm. Many RN lawmakers owe their jobs to her, and would have to adapt to new management under Bardella.

RN officials say Le Pen would campaign alongside Bardella if he becomes the candidate, and the party leadership would remain united. Still, Bardella advocates a more free-market line than Le Pen, and has voiced ideas for pension reform that could irk some older voters who form the RN's base.

Who ultimately tries to become modern France's first far-right head of state will depend on the details of the verdict.

Le Pen was originally found guilty of being at the heart of a scheme to misappropriate EU funds intended to finance parliamentary assistants, using the money instead to pay RN employees.

She received a five-year ban from standing for elected office, effective immediately, a €100,000 fine and a four-year prison sentence - two of which were suspended, two to be served in home detention.

The appeal court could uphold Le Pen's conviction but soften the sentence. If the ban is lifted or shortened to two years or less, she could probably run as the ban started in March 2025.

However, if the prison sentence is upheld, requiring her to stay at home under electronic monitoring, a presidential campaign would become politically and logistically difficult.

The judges could also overturn Le Pen's conviction, leaving her entirely free to run for president although, given the lower court's findings, legal experts consider this unlikely.

If the conviction and sentence are upheld, Le Pen could appeal to France's highest court, the Cour de Cassation. But Le Pen has said she will not be a presidential candidate if she has to wait any longer for a final ruling.($1 = 0.8758 euros) REUTERS