By Juliette Jabkhiro
PARIS (Reuters) -A Paris court ruled on Monday that French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s appeal trial against an embezzlement conviction that barred her from running in the 2027 election will start on January 13, keeping her presidential hopes alive.
The appeal trial is expected to last around five weeks and the verdict is due before the summer in a case that could have a huge impact on the election to succeed President Emmanuel Macron.
The court ruling on the timing came even as Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) and other opposition parties were set to defeat Prime Minister Francois Bayrou in a confidence vote on Monday that has presented Macron with a fresh political crisis.
A Paris court convicted Le Pen and some two dozen National Rally (RN) party officials in March of embezzling EU funds, handing Le Pen an immediate five-year ban on running for office that effectively barred her from standing in the 2027 vote.
Le Pen and her colleagues appealed the decision, and the appeals court pledged to expedite the case, given the major political ramifications of its decision.
Few expect the appeals court to overturn Le Pen’s initial conviction, for which she also received a four-year prison sentence of which two are suspended, and a 100,000-euro fine. Both of those are frozen pending appeal.
But the RN hopes the appeals court could scrap – or shorten – her political ban, allowing her to stand in 2027 in what would be her fourth attempt at the top office.
The prosecutor argued that an early-2026 trial would allow the court to give a verdict before the summer and avoid interfering in March municipal elections, while RN lawyers sought a date after the municipal elections. The appeals court judge followed the prosecutor’s proposal.
(Reporting by Juliette JabkhiroWriting by Dominique VidalonEditing by Makini Brice, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Gabriel Stargardter)
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