The leader of the French far right, Marine Le Pen, once again saw her hopes of being able to run for political office in the near future dashed.
In a new appeal to the case of embezzlement of European funds, in which she was found guilty, Le Pen criticized former Prime Minister François Bayrou for not having repealed parts of the electoral code that allow the immediate application of ineligibility, claiming that they violated the freedoms of both candidates and voters.
However, the State Council rejected the leader’s request in fact of the National Regroupment (RN) for considering that “it is not so much about repealing regulatory provisions, but rather about modifying the law itself”, which “exceeds the powers of the Prime Minister”, he indicated, in a statement.
Le Pen, whose appeal hearing will take place at the Paris Court of Appeal between January 13 and February 12, 2026, contested in April the exclusion from the electoral lists and asked the Council of State to refer a priority question of constitutionality to the Constitutional Council.
European far-right figures at a meeting in Madrid in February 2025
Pablo Blazquez Domínguez/Getty Igles
Although the sentence is not yet final, the immediate execution of a five-year ineligibility sentence by the Paris court, in practice, nullifies Le Pen’s ambition to run again in the presidential elections planned for 2027, as well as legislative ones.
In March, the president of the RN group in the National Assembly was sentenced to four years in prisontwo of which must be served under electronic surveillance, a fine of 100 thousand euros and immediate ineligibility for five years in the case of embezzlement of European funds due to “fictitious contracts” for parliamentary assistants.
In accordance with the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Council, Marine Le Pen was removed from office from the position of departmental counselor for Pas-de-Calais (north of the country) on April 18, despite maintaining her mandate as deputy.
In 2015, the European Parliament (EP) issued a warning to the French authorities about the possible fraudulent use of funds from the former National Front party, currently National Regroupment, due to the large number of contracts for parliamentary assistants who worked wholly or partially for the party between 2004 and 2016.
In July, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office opened a new investigation into the partyled by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, and far-right allies in Brussels, suspected of various financial irregularities.
Together with partners from Identity and Democracy (ID) – a former right-wing and extreme-right political group within the EP, replaced a year ago by Patriots for Europe –, the French party is suspected of “undue spending” of more than 4.3 million euros between 2019 and 2024.