Marine Le Pen faces crucial Paris appeals trial over misuse of EU funds

PARIS (AP) — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s political future hangs in the balance at an appeals trial in Paris, which may damage her party’s ambitions of radically changing France’s direction through anti-immigration and nationalist policies.

Le Pen will answer the judges' questions for two days starting Tuesday as she seeks to overturn a March ruling that found her guilty of misusing European Parliament funds in the hiring of aides from 2004 to 2016.

She was given a five-year ban from holding elected office, two years of house arrest with an electronic bracelet and a further two-year suspended sentence.

Here's why the appeals trial could significantly impact France's political landscape:

France's 2027 presidential race is at stake

If she’s able to run, Le Pen, 57, is expected to be among top contenders in the 2027 presidential election, possibly the front-runner, according to opinion polls.

She finished runner-up to Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and 2022, making her one of the most experienced senior politicians in the country.

Le Pen has been for the past 15 years trying to bring the far right into France’s political mainstream, striving to remove the stigma of racism and antisemitism that has clung to the party.

Her National Rally party has become since 2024 the largest single political group in France’s powerful lower house of parliament, even though it fell short of having a majority of seats.

If Le Pen is ruled ineligible, she has already designated her 30-year-old protégé, Jordan Bardella, as her successor in the presidential bid.

The fraud case involved money for hiring party aides

The National Rally and 11 of its officials, including Le Pen, are accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay instead staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations.

Some EU money was used to pay for Le Pen’s bodyguard, as well as her personal assistant. Another aide worked as a graphic designer. Others worked as aides to party officials they had no employment contract with.

Le Pen’s sister, Yann, also was paid as an EU parliamentary aide when she was in charge of organizing the party’s big events.

The legal proceedings stem from a 2015 alert raised to French authorities about possible fraud by Martin Schulz, then-president of the European Parliament.

Le Pen denies wrongdoing

Le Pen and other party officials acknowledged they hired people to do multiple tasks for the party but denied wrongdoing.

During the first trial in 2024, Le Pen argued all the work done by aides was justified and aboveboard. She said their missions had to be adapted to the lawmakers' various activities primarily focusing on the domestic scene, which explains they had diverse tasks. She also acknowledged some of the aides were “shared” by several elected officials for organization purposes.

The role of an aide “depends on each person’s skills. Some wrote speeches for me, and some handled logistics and coordination,” Le Pen said at the time.

However, when the appeals trial opened last week, Le Pen’s defense appeared more focused on arguing the party may have made unintentional mistakes.

“We did not feel we had committed any offense,” Le Pen told the court. She said European Parliament officials did not at the time tell her party that the way it was hiring people was potentially against any rules.

March ruling says Le Pen part of ‘fraudulent system’

A Paris court ruled in March that Le Pen was at the heart of “a fraudulent system” that her party used to siphon off EU parliament funds worth 2.9 million euros ($3.4 million). The ruling described the embezzlement as “a democratic bypass” unfair to competitors.

The court noted “the seriousness of the acts committed” and “the harm caused both to citizens’ trust in public life and to the interests of the European Parliament” to justify the sentence.

The judges handed down guilty verdicts to eight other current or former members of her party who, like Le Pen, previously served as European Parliament lawmakers. Also convicted were 12 people who served as parliamentary aides and three others. Some did not appeal the ruling.

Several options in Le Pen's trial

The five-week trial that started on Jan. 13 will reexamine the case from scratch, reassessing evidence and hearing witnesses and defendants again. A new ruling will be issued at a later date, likely before summer.

Several scenarios are possible.

Le Pen could be cleared and possibly emerge strengthened, paving the way for her presidential campaign. Or, she could be convicted and barred from running, forcing her to support Bardella's candidacy.

Bardella’s popularity has surged in recent years, particularly among younger voters, though some within the party have questioned his leadership. His relative inexperience compared with Le Pen, scripted responses during interviews and apparent lack of expertise on some economic and international topics may work against a potential presidential candidate.

Another option is for Le Pen to be found guilty, but with a lighter sentence that still allows her to run.

Le Pen's party has criticized the judges

Le Pen denounced the March ruling as “a democratic scandal.”

“The (judicial) system brought out the nuclear bomb,” she said. “And if it is using such a powerful weapon against us, it’s obviously because we’re about to win the elections.”

National party officials alleged it was a politically motivated decision implemented by what they describe as left-wing judges, which echoes language used by U.S. President Donald Trump in 2023 when he said prosecutors were engaged in a “witch hunt” to damage his campaign.

In France, judges are independent magistrates and cannot be removed from their posts.

“I hope I’ll be able to convince the judges of my innocence,” Le Pen said last week.