Marine Le Pen's hopes to become France's next President may still be possible after a Court of Appeals in Paris said it will issue a decision on her case by summer 2026.
If the deadline is met, this would mean that the second trial would take place in early 2026.
And if a final decision is handed down several months before the 2027 presidential election, it would give the far-right leader of the National Rally party enough time to enter the race should she be cleared of any wrongdoing.
This decision could completely change the situation for the far-right party and does not immediately oblige Le Pen to consider a replacement presidential election candidate such as her protégé Jordan Bardella.
However, Le Pen will either have to be acquitted or be handed a sentence that does not include ineligibility to run for office with immediate effect so that she can continue campaigning.
Without the suspension of the 'immediate effect' clause of the political ineligibility ruling, Le Pen will have to consider giving up her spot to someone else.
"This is a cautious solution chosen by the Court of Appeal, which mitigates criticism of the effects of the immediate effect of the ruling," said Robin Binsard, a criminal defence lawyer.
"There is, of course, another scenario: a presidential pardon. But it's important to remember that the president can only grant a pardon for a conviction that is final and definitive. This right of pardon can only be exercised if Marine Le Pen has exhausted all avenues of appeal," the lawyer told Euronews.
In the meantime, Le Pen can keep her seat as an MP in the lower house of parliament.
She is barred from running in any future elections before mid-2026, such as municipal elections next spring or possible legislative elections in 2025 in the event of another dissolution of parliament.
This surprising decision comes after she was convicted on Monday of embezzling European Parliament funds and banned from running for office for five years with immediate effect.
A total of 24 people were involved in the case, in addition to the far-right party itself.
But Monday’s conviction still spells trouble for her party according to certain experts.
"It destabilises, it weakens the leadership, the organisation, the line of logic, there are a lot of things that are thrown off balance Now there can be resilience of course, and then there can perhaps be this second solution which would be Bardella," explained Virginie Martin, a political scientist and far-right expert.
A plan B like for Jordan Bardella, the leader of the National Rally party and Le Pen’s protégé could replace her as a candidate in the 2027 election.
But at only 29 years old, he could be seen as relatively inexperienced only having served as a Member of the European Parliament.
While waiting for the courts to rule again, the National Rally has already launched its counter-attack.
It boasts 10,000 additional party members and 300,000 signatories for its support petition since Le Pen’s conviction.
