She’ll need a three-judge panel to reverse or significantly reduce the ban so she can take part in the race to take over from French President Emmanuel Macron in spring 2027.
The ruling will land at a moment when Le Pen has never appeared closer to the presidency after three previous campaigns and two runoff defeats to Macron. But even if she is barred, it remains unclear whether her party’s chances would suffer: National Rally President Jordan Bardella, 30, has been tapped as her substitute and has polled at least as strongly in some early surveys.
While Le Pen has said she wouldn’t campaign if she were placed under house arrest and forced to wear an electronic ankle bracelet, on Wednesday she told an interviewer she would continue participating in politics whatever the outcome.
“It’s no longer up to me,” she said. “But I’ll continue to fight, and I’ll continue to be an activist. And if I’m only an activist, I’ll just be an activist.”
Le Pen is expected at Paris’ Palais de Justice, located in the medieval heart of the French capital, in the early afternoon. The presiding judge, Michèle Agi, is slated to start reading the verdict around 1:30 p.m.
Le Pen is not expected to make a statement immediately after leaving the courtroom. According to three National Rally officials, all of whom were granted anonymity to discuss an agenda still in flux, she will instead immediately go to her party’s headquarters in the west end of the French capital to meet with Bardella.