By Juliette Jabkhiro and Elizabeth Pineau
PARIS, Jan 12 (Reuters) – French far-right leader Marine Le Pen begins a crucial appeal in Paris this week that will determine whether she can run in the 2027 presidential election, after being barred from public office over a conviction for misusing EU funds.
Le Pen, the long-time leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), was seen as a likely frontrunner in the 2027 race until she was found guilty last year of misappropriating more than 4 million euros ($4.7 million) of EU funds and given a five-year ban from running for public office, effective immediately.
Le Pen appealed, as did the RN and 10 others found guilty of diverting European Parliament funds. The hearing begins on Tuesday and should end on February 12.
OUTCOME EXPECTED BEFORE SUMMER
A ruling is expected before the summer, meaning her hopes of running in 2027 remain alive if her five-year ban is revoked or drastically curtailed.
If she cannot run, Le Pen has said her protege, 30-year-old RN party president Jordan Bardella, will do so in her stead.
U.S. President Donald Trump and senior members of his team voiced support for Le Pen after her conviction, and any move to stop her from running would likely be seized on by them in their campaign to portray European courts and officials as seeking to unfairly block far-right politicians from power.
Trump officials last year held internal discussions about sanctioning French prosecutors and judges involved in barring Le Pen, four sources told Reuters, although those talks no longer appear to be active.
The news, first reported by German magazine Der Spiegel, was denied by Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers on X on Thursday, describing it as a “fake story”.
A State Department spokesperson said: “We do not preview potential actions.”
French government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon said on Thursday the government would remain vigilant to potential U.S. meddling after Peimane Ghaleh-Marzban, the president of the Paris judicial court, said any move against a French judge would “constitute an unacceptable and intolerable interference in the internal affairs of our country”.
Over the past year, the U.S. has imposed sanctions against 11 International Criminal Court judges involved in cases against Israel.
LE PEN SAYS BAN POLITICALLY MOTIVATED
Le Pen’s lawyers, Rodolphe Bosselut and Sandra Chirac Kollarik, declined to comment ahead of the trial.
Following her conviction, Le Pen accused the judiciary of politically motivated targeting, echoing rhetoric used in the U.S.
“In the country of human rights, judges have implemented practices that we thought were reserved for authoritarian regimes,” Le Pen told French TV channel TF1 at the time.
The judges explained in their ruling that they had decided to make the ban effective immediately “to avoid irreparable harm to democratic public order”.
Opinion polls indicated that most French people supported the ruling.
The European Parliament’s lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve said he hoped Le Pen and her co-defendants’ convictions would be upheld, including more than 3 million euro awarded in damages to the European Parliament. The RN was also ordered to pay a 2 million euro fine, with half the amount suspended.
Judges said in last March’s ruling that, between 2004 and 2016, Le Pen and others had used funds destined for work at the European Parliament to pay staff who were actually working for the party.
Le Pen said the way she and her co-defendants used the money was legitimate.
Le Pen’s legal woes appear to have benefited Bardella. A poll last autumn found Bardella would win the presidency, no matter who his opponent was in the second round.
“French people have turned the page on Marine Le Pen,” Stewart Chau, an analyst with Verian Group, told Reuters.($1 = 0.8589 euros)
(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro, Elizabeth Pineau, Gabriel Stargardter and Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Juliette Jabkhiro; Editing by Gabriel Stargardter and Alex Richardson)
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