A Paris appeals court ruled Tuesday to shorten Marine Le Pen's ban on holding public office, technically reopening her path to run in France's 2027 presidential election, though the far-right leader has signaled she may decline to run at all given a condition attached to the ruling.
The court upheld Le Pen's conviction for embezzling European Union funds, but reduced her sentence from the original five-year ban on elected office handed down in March 2025 to 45 months, two-thirds of which are suspended, with the ban technically counted as having begun from the original ruling date. That timeline makes her legally eligible to appear on the ballot in April 2027. The court also reduced her prison sentence to three years, with two years suspended, but ruled that the remaining year must be served through an alternative arrangement, including the possibility of an electronic ankle bracelet monitored at home.
That bracelet condition is the sticking point. Le Pen has said repeatedly, including in an interview last week, that being technically allowed to run while functionally prevented from campaigning freely would not be an acceptable outcome for her. She is expected to address the ruling directly in a primetime television appearance Tuesday evening in France.
