She had already hinted at it several times, and, on Wednesday, February 11, her lawyer confirmed it in court: Far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s decision on whether or not to run in the 2027 presidential election will depend on the appeals court’s ruling, which is due on July 7. It would take a year to prepare for the presidential election, including setting up a campaign funding association; and a possible second appeal, filed with France’s highest appeals court, the Cour de Cassation, could only be resolved at the start of 2027, just weeks before the first electoral round. Moreover, the election ban she was initially sentenced to could potentially still be in effect. “You are therefore obliged to take into account a national political timetable, which makes your ruling a daunting one to make,” said her lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut. “This is no favor,” he added, in what may have been a friendly form of pressure.

On the final day of Le Pen’s appeal trial for embezzlement over suspected fake jobs at the European Parliament, Bosselut was the last of his 12 colleagues to present his closing arguments at the Paris court, doing so skillfully and with solid reasoning. He sought to defuse “the infernal machine,” as he called it, which had been set in motion by the decision to call for the immediate enforcement of Le Pen’s sentence on March 31, 2025: four years in prison with two suspended, and a five-year ban on holding elected office. “This is an unprecedented case,” said Bosselut. “It is the first appellate decision on the embezzlement of public funds committed by members of the European Parliament, which will be ruled on for the first time.”

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