PARIS — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen will face an appeal trial from Jan. 13 to Feb. 12 next year that will determine whether she will be able to run in the 2027 presidential election.

Le Pen was found guilty in March of embezzling European Parliament funds and sentenced to an immediate five-year ban from running for public office, in a decision that seemingly dealt a fatal blow to her presidential ambitions.

Le Pen denied all the charges and immediately appealed the ruling.

Following widespread outrage at the verdict from various corners of the right, including U.S. President Donald Trump, the court of appeal promised a decision by summer of 2026. It usually takes two to three months for the court to reach a decision after the trial ends.

The far-right leader slammed the trial as politically motivated and the guilty verdict as antidemocratic. Le Pen’s supporters hope the court will either overturn her immediate election ban so she can run in the presidential election or commute the sentence into a shorter one with the same effect.

Le Pen and 24 other codefendants were accused of illicitly siphoning off European Parliament funds to pay for National Rally employees who seldom or never attended to their parliamentary activities in Brussels or Strasbourg. The court estimated the accused had embezzled more than €4 million over 12 years. 

The harshest punishment was reserved for Le Pen, as she was convicted of criminal activity both as a former MEP and as the then-president of her party. 

While her protégé, National Rally President Jordan Bardella, is theoretically ready to step up as an alternative presidential candidate, Le Pen, currently lawmaker in the French Assemblée Nationale, has signaled her intention to use all possible judicial means at her disposal to run, even if President Emmanuel Macron calls new parliamentary elections before her appeal trial.