Drama in France: Le Pen could theoretically run for president next year

Le Pen (57) was convicted in March 2025 of corruption and embezzlement of public funds, appealed the conviction, and now registered a victory on the political level when the court decided to confirm the conviction but changed the sentence in a way that would theoretically allow her to run for president. She must now decide whether the very conviction and imprisonment she was sentenced to constitute an electoral burden, which may cause her to lose, or whether she will decide to run.

● First Western leader in Damascus: French President Macron visits Syria
● Macron kept Israelis away from a defense exhibition but Vietnam insisted on meeting them

The Paris Court of Appeals convicted Le Pen of corruption and fraud, but sentenced her to “only” three years in prison (two of which were suspended) and a term of disgrace of 45 months (of which 30 were suspended). The 15 months of disgrace she was sentenced to, in which she is not allowed to run for public office, are actually only valid until this August, so that she could theoretically run in the upcoming French presidential elections (the first round will take place in April).

She can convert the year of imprisonment she was sentenced to by staying at home with an electronic handcuff and, according to estimates, shorten it to six months. Before the ruling, Le Pen said that she “does not intend to run a presidential campaign with an electronic handcuff”, when she would be required to obtain permission to go to election rallies. Now, faced with the possibility that the sentence will be shortened, there is a hypothetical possibility where you will be at home for the next six months, but after that you will start campaigning for the presidency.

What will Le Pen decide?

Le Pen must decide now, after three times in which she ran for the presidency of France and failed, whether to run herself in the upcoming elections – in which she is the leading candidate for victory – or to allow Jordan Bardella (30) to run for the presidency. “I will support him with all my might,” she said before the decision when asked if she would make room for him in the event that the court forbids her to run for public office.

Le Pen and other senior members of the party (formerly called the National Front) were convicted in March 2025 of embezzling EU funds, by using public money intended for the party’s activities to finance political activity in France, local campaigns, and more. These are budgets in the amount of more than 4 million euros, which also included a salary for the director of Le Pen’s personal office. The trial included many testimonies, including Le Pen’s personal involvement in the actions, and presented what was going on behind the scenes of the party in the years when it was in the “political wilderness”, not as popular as it is today, and had to fight for its existence with the help of embezzlement of funds and loans from dubious sources.

In March 2025, the judges sentenced Le Pen to four years in prison (two of them on probation and two with electronic handcuffs only) and five years of disgrace, during which she is prohibited from running for public office. She announced after the verdict that it was a political persecution, and in particular she came out against a decision to sentence the disgrace “immediately” and not subject to the appeal process. Her attorneys filed an appeal as quickly as possible and a court promised to end the hearings in time to decide if she could run in the upcoming elections.

Le Pen is expected to announce her next moves this evening.

The political and pro-Israel heir

As mentioned, Le Pen has already announced in advance that she will “support everything” in Bardella, a political meteor who led the party to a surprising victory in the elections to the European Parliament about two years ago, which is considered a pro-Israel party. The result of the election was that French President Emmanuel Macron tried to use the surprising results to rally support in the center and the left, and announced parliamentary elections. He suffered a defeat in these elections, and since then has behaved like a lame duck, with governments at the mercy of the opposition and a budget that is only passed by presidential decree. Macron ruled out going to the presidential elections, and the next ones are planned to take place in two rounds, the first of which will be in April 2027.

Le Pen managed to “center” her party, which was saturated with holocaust deniers, extreme right-wing activists and undemocratic elements, and against the background of the great disappointment with the politics of Emmanuel Macron, the conservatives and the socialists, to turn it into the leading political force in France, according to the latest polls. On the other hand, the fragmentation experienced by French politics and the weakening of the center led to the strengthening of the left-wing bloc, led by Jean-Luc Melanchon.

The “National Union” in its current form is a right-wing party that firmly opposes immigration, casts doubt on the future of the European Union, supports national measures at the expense of the European vision and leads an economic line that includes increasing pensions, deepening the deficit in favor of fighting the cost of living, and more. Regarding Russia as well, Le Pen and her party have changed positions, and in recent years have moved from supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin to supporting Ukraine’s right to defend itself. “In any case,” Le Pen said in an interview before the trial, “the party’s ideas will continue to exist.”