A timeline of Marine Le Pen's political career and the rise of the French far right.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen's political future is on the line as a Paris appeals court rules on her eligibility to stand in the 2027 presidential election.
French far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen could see her 40-year political career come to an end on Tuesday if French courts uphold that she is guilty of embezzling public funds and ineligible to stand for the presidency in 2027.
Le Pen, 57, has challenged a March 2025 ruling that found her and other members of her National Rally party guilty of misusing European Parliament funds in the hiring of aides from 2004 to 2016.
The aides allegedly worked for the party instead of carrying out parliamentary tasks. If convicted again, Le Pen could be sentenced to a ban on holding elected office, be required to wear an electronic tag, or both, among other possible penalties.
If she is unable to run in the presidential election, her place on the ballot would be taken by her 30-year-old protégé Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally party.
The case is central to the future of the French right and to the transformation of the National Rally into one of France’s major political forces.
Marine Le Pen was born on August 5 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, west of Paris. She is the youngest of three daughters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who would later lead the far-right National Front.
In the following decades, Jean-Marie Le Pen repeatedly denied the Holocaust and was convicted multiple times of antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence.