STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The leader of France's far-right party is trying to overturn her conviction for embezzling public money. The appeals trial for Marine Le Pen began Tuesday in Paris, and NPR's Eleanor Beardsley is on it.
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UNIDENTIFIED NEWSCASTER: (Speaking French).
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Will Marine Le Pen be able to run for president in 2027? - asked this newscaster. That's the question her appeals trial will answer. Last March, a court ruled that the 57-year-old parliamentarian and longtime leader of the far-right National Rally Party had illegally used European Parliament funds, where she holds a seat, to pay her party employees in France to the tune of nearly $5 million over 14 years. Le Pen was given a prison sentence to be served at home with an electronic bracelet and was fined more than a hundred thousand dollars. But the real punishment, it seems, was a five-year ban on holding elected office just as polls put her in first place for the 2027 presidential race. President Emmanuel Macron, who beat Le Pen twice, cannot run again.
JEAN-YVES CAMUS: This is a very important moment for Le Pen.
BEARDSLEY: That's political scientist Jean-Yves Camus. He says the trial is also crucial for her party's voters, who don't know who their candidate will be. If Le Pen's conviction is not overturned, her protege, the young Jordan Bardella who's become a star on TikTok, will step in as candidate.
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JORDAN BARDELLA: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Bardella called Le Pen's conviction an injustice in the eyes of millions of French people who, he said, would not understand being deprived of a candidate who has qualified twice for the second round of the presidential election and is today the favorite. Camus believes if Le Pen does not win her appeal, she'll leave politics.
CAMUS: But she wants to be the one who decides how and when she leaves the political scene. She does not want a judge to decide.
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MARINE LE PEN: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Le Pen has called her conviction political and denies any wrongdoing. The verdict is set to come out before the summer, a year ahead of next year's presidential race. Le Pen's populist, anti-immigrant party is now the most popular in France amidst a splintered electorate and disappointment over Macron. So far, no one has emerged from the mainstream to run against the National Rally, whether its presidential candidate is Le Pen or Bardella.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.
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