Marine Le Pen, the former leader of France’s far-right party, the National Rally, appeared in court on Tuesday to appeal the penalty for her March 2025 embezzlement conviction.

The central issue in the appeal centers on whether Le Pen’s penalty is legal and reasonable. Following the conviction, Le Pen was “barred from running for office for five years ‘with immediate effect.'” Le Pen was also given a “four-year prison sentence —two years suspended and two to be served with an electronic bracelet—along with a €100,000 fine.” The ex-NR leader promised she would exhaust all potential legal avenues to overturn the conviction.

Prosecutors began investigating Le Pen in December 2016 after she and other party members fell under suspicion of improperly paying party staff members with EU funds. A trial was requested in 2023 for over 20 National Rally figures. 

Despite reported consensus across France’s political landscape that “the ultimate sanction by the court could not [and] would not, in the end, take place,” the French court found Le Pen guilty and instituted the ban, which will begin to be enforced after the appeals process ends. 

Under France’s legal system, an appeals court has the authority to review the decision of the lower, first-instance court in its entirety, including the legal aspects and the factual matrix. An appellate court will not disturb a finding of fact unless the trial judge made a “palpable and overriding error.” If the appellate court upholds her conviction and penalty, Le Pen may still appeal France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation.

If the penalty is upheld, Christophe Soulard, chair of the Court of Cassation, told reporters last week that the court would issue an expedited ruling “if possible” before the 2027 election, stating:

The judges are not out of touch with reality. They are well aware that there will be a presidential election in 2027 and that Marine Le Pen is obviously an important candidate, so the timing of the ruling may have an impact… If there is a ruling upholding the case and there is an appeal to the Court of Cassation, which has not yet happened, then the Court of Cassation will, as far as possible, try the case fairly quickly

The trial runs from January 13 until February 12. The verdict is not expected until summer.