What happened: Marine Le Pen, leader of the French far-right National Rally party, announced she's running for office after all. Yesterday, an appeals court reduced her criminal sentence for embezzling EU funds, clearing the way for her candidacy in France’s April 2027 presidential election.
In March 2025, a Paris court found Le Pen and several of her colleagues guilty of misusing €4.5 million in EU taxpayer money between 2004 and 2017, hiring parliamentary assistants who worked for their domestic party instead of doing EU work.
The court sentenced Le Pen to four years in prison and banned her from public office for five years, which would have prevented her from running in the presidential election just as the National Rally led in the polls.
Le Pen's new sentence includes a €100,000 fine and three-year prison sentence, one year of which she'll serve under house arrest with an electronic ankle bracelet, with the other two kicking in only if she reoffends. The court also reduced her ban from public office to just under four years, but suspended 30 months of that too, meaning it'll be lifted in time for the election.
The National Rally was ordered to pay a €2 million fine, €1 million of which is suspended.
Why this matters: Stealing millions in EU taxpayer money is, apparently, not enough to have you barred from public office for longer than 18 months.
Le Pen's return will shake up the presidential race leading up to an important election for Europe. After three unsuccessful presidential candidacies, this time is different. With the National Rally leading in polls, Le Pen has a real chance at succeeding Emmanuel Macron, who can’t run again.
If she wins, Europe's second largest country will be led by a Euro- and NATO-sceptic who is even more polarising than her party's second-in-line, Jordan Bardella, would have been.
What's next: Though a lot can happen in the nine months until the election, Le Pen could be the first French president to take office with an ankle monitor. Though she originally ruled out a campaign if her house arrest was upheld, she's now betting on another successful appeal to avoid the bracelet.
Meanwhile, her party is still being investigated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. Last week, police raided National Rally offices as part of a – you guessed it – investigation into misuse of EU funds.