The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has rejected veteran right-wing French politician Marine Le Pen’s request to suspend a five-year ban on her standing in elections, including the 2027 presidential race, which stems from an embezzlement conviction.
“In any event, the existence of an imminent risk of irreparable harm to a right protected by the Convention or its protocols has not been established,” the court wrote in its press release on Wednesday.
In March 2025, a French judge found the former leader of the biggest opposition party, National Rally (RN), guilty of misusing public funds intended for assistants to the RN members of the European Parliament; they were instead used to pay staff in France. Le Pen has denied any wrongdoing and appealed the verdict, which she calls politically motivated.
Le Pen ran for president in 2017 and 2022, losing both times in a runoff to President Emmanuel Macron. The National Rally is currently the third-largest party in the National Assembly.
On Wednesday, police raided RN headquarters in Paris as part of an investigation into alleged campaign finance violations and fraud. RN leader Jordan Bardella denounced the searches as an attempt to “destabilize the party and drive it into financial ruin.”
US President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance have publicly voiced support for Le Pen, which the French authorities dismissed as meddling in domestic affairs.
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