Under the appeals verdict the far-right leader may be able to run for president in 2027, though she would have to wear an ankle monitor.
Le Pen, 57, had been sentenced to a five-year ban from public office last year by a lower court, as well as two years in prison over a fake jobs scam when she was a member of the European Parliament.
The National Rally (RN) leader then immediately launched an appeal.
She told a party rally over the weekend that she was “not afraid” of the coming verdict.
After coming second in France’s 2017 and 2022 elections, Le Pen is hoping to make another run for the presidency in 2027. If the ban is upheld, however, her protege Jordan Bardella has been groomed to take her place.
What was Le Pen convicted of?
As a member of what was then called the National Front, Le Pen was a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2017.
Alongside some two dozen former far-right employees, she was found guilty of misappropriating EU funds to pay alleged staffers for jobs that did not really exist.
Prosecutors said she “professionalized” a type of graft first introduced by her father, the late far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, to siphon EU funds.
Le Pen, the party, and 10 others have appealed their verdicts, with her fellow RN chief Bardella calling the trials “politically motivated.” She has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Edited by: Natalie Muller
DW News
