Marine Le Pen, the head of France's far-right Rassemblement National party, announced on July 7, 2026, that she will run for president in 2027. Hours before, a court had made that possible by softening her punishment in a financial crimes case.

Here is what happened: Three years ago, Le Pen was convicted of misusing European Parliament money. Her party had allegedly paid people to work as assistants on EU-related tasks, but those people actually did party work instead. A lower court sentenced her to a five-year ban from holding office and two years in prison. That would have kept her out of the 2027 race entirely Al Jazeera.

On July 7, an appeals court reduced her sentence. Instead of five years, she now gets 45 months (about 3.75 years) without the ability to hold office. But here is the key part: 30 of those months are "suspended," meaning they don't count. The remaining 15 months get counted backward from the original verdict in March 2025. That means the ban expires before the 2027 election — she will be eligible to run Al Jazeera. The court also ordered one year of electronic monitoring instead of prison time Le Monde.

The electronic monitor was the sticking point for Le Pen. For months, she had said publicly that she would not campaign if she had to wear a tracking bracelet on her wrist. As recently as July 1, just days before the court decision, she told reporters she would refuse to be monitored during a campaign Le Monde. But on July 7, she changed course. She said she would campaign without the monitor because she has the right to appeal the court's ruling. While that appeal moves forward, the government is not enforcing the monitoring order Al Jazeera.

Why this matters: Until now, the party's president, Jordan Bardella, had been preparing to run instead of Le Pen. If her ban had stayed in place, he likely would have been the candidate. But now that Le Pen is running, that plan falls apart. She had even said in September 2025 that she would not be Bardella's prime minister if he won TF1 Info.

One important catch: This is not the final word. Le Pen's case can go to France's highest court, which may overturn or uphold this decision. For now, she can campaign freely because the government is not enforcing the monitoring requirement while the legal process continues. But if the final court rules against her, things could change again before the election.

France changed its laws in 2016 to make it harder for politicians convicted of crimes to simply run and hide behind long appeals. The goal was to stop people under a legal cloud from using court delays to stay in the race. Le Pen's case is now the biggest test of whether those rules actually work when a major political candidate is involved.