French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has acknowledged a “mistake” at a key appeal trial in Paris, as she fights to salvage her political ambitions. The trial, which began last week, could have significant implications for France’s political landscape.
Le Pen, 57, is seeking to overturn a March 2025 ruling that found her guilty of misusing EU Parliament funds in the hiring of aides from 2004 to 2016. During the trial on Wednesday, she admitted that some of her party’s parliamentary aides had performed work for the National Front, the party’s former name, during that period.
“The mistake lies here: there were certainly some aides, on a case-by-case basis, who must have worked either marginally, more substantially, or entirely … for the benefit of the party. And voilà,” Le Pen told the three-judge panel.
However, she firmly denied the existence of “a system” meant to hire party workers with EU funds, insisting that her party had acted in “complete good faith.” Le Pen acknowledged “ambiguity” in some aides’ assignments, including her personal assistant, who had a contract as an EU parliamentary aide but may have bought some flight tickets for her as the party’s president.
The chief judge, Michèle Agi, noted that as an MEP from 2004 and president of her party from 2011, Le Pen had approved those hirings. “You are a lawyer, you know the law — inevitably, a signature, a contract are notions that have a meaning for you,” Agi told Le Pen.
Last March, Le Pen was given a five-year ban from holding elected office, two years of house arrest with an electronic bracelet, and a further two-year suspended sentence for having violated the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. The ruling described the embezzlement as “a democratic bypass” unfair to competitors.
If the appeal court rules in her favour, Le Pen is expected to be among the top contenders in the 2027 presidential election. If she is deemed ineligible, she has designated her 30-year-old protégé, Jordan Bardella, as her successor in the presidential bid.
The trial is expected to have a significant impact on France’s political landscape, with the appeal court’s ruling expected before the summer.
