Le Pen does not give up and calls for street mobilization.

ParisThe day after Marine Le Pen was sentenced to five years of immediate disqualification For embezzlement of public funds, French Prime Minister François Bayrou expressed his openness to reviewing the law that allowed the far-right leader to be disqualified. "In law, any criminal decision with serious consequences must be subject to appeal," Bayrou stated this Tuesday in the National Assembly. The prime minister asserted that the law raises "questions" and opened the door to "reflection."

The law that disqualified the leader of the National Regrouping (RN) party was approved by the National Assembly in 2016 and was intended to combat corruption. The law entails direct disqualification from public office in the event of a conviction for embezzlement, and its unique feature is that its immediate application is not subject to appeal. An appeal against the conviction can be filed—which is what Le Pen did this Tuesday—and, in this case, the prison sentence is suspended while the appeal is resolved, but the politician's disqualification is not suspended.

This is what makes the far-right leader only have the option of running in the 2027 presidential elections If either of the two appeals she can file results in her acquittal or a significant reduction in her ban. For now, she is banned until 2030. "France is the only country that does this," Bayrou lamented at a breakfast meeting with MPs on Tuesday, according to various French media outlets.

Speed up the appeal deadline

Given the political consequences of the ruling, the Court of Appeal will accelerate the deadlines to resolve the appeal filed this Friday by Marine Le Pen as quickly as possible. In a statement, the court explains that it "will examine the dossier within a period that will allow for a decision to be made public in the summer of 2026." This will not be the final ruling; there will still be room for a final appeal. The deadline for the final ruling is still unknown.

Meanwhile, Le Pen's far-right party has called for "peaceful" mobilization and has called for a large street rally in Paris this Sunday, open to the public. "This is a rally against the independence of the judiciary," warned former prime minister and now leader of the Macronist deputies in the Assembly, Gabriel Attal.

The visibly angry RN leader spoke before television cameras on Tuesday to denounce the sentence as a political maneuver to remove her from the presidential race and accused "the system" of having used "the nuclear bomb" to prevent her from running in the 2020 elections. The RN's strategy focuses on presenting herself as a victim and accusing the justice system of playing politics. Le Pen copies the strategy followed by populist leaders such as US President Donald Trump, who has spoken out about the sentence. "It makes me think about our country," Trump said. The criticism of the judges has not pleased the French government or the judiciary, who have called for respect for justice. The political instability that has been experienced in France for months is not unrelated to all of this.

Bayrou, awaiting trial

Bayrou's approach to revising the law that allows for Le Pen's disqualification from office has sparked a debate in France about that law. And it has also generated controversy. During his speech before the Assembly, the Prime Minister did not mention that he, too, could be convicted of the same crime as Le Pen. Bayrou was acquitted of misusing public funds from the European Parliament, but the prosecution appealed, and another trial will soon be held in which he could be convicted and disqualified.

Neither Le Pen nor Bayrou are alone. The leader of La France Insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has been under investigation since 2017 by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), which could lead to a trial like Le Pen's. OLAF detected "irregularities" in the hiring of two assistants to Mélenchon—an MEP from 2009 to 2017—in the European Parliament and has been investigating the case for years, according to the newspaper Release

MP Éric Ciotti, close to the far right, has announced that he will submit a bill to overturn the immediate ban, with no possibility of appealing it. The RN has already stated that it will support him. It is unclear, however, whether there will be a sufficient majority to pass it, nor, if it is passed, whether it will serve to overturn Le Pen's ban.

In response to the far-right attacks on the judges who convicted the RN leader, and despite being open to revising the law, Bayrou called for respect for the ruling and the judges who signed it. "There is no possibility, especially for a government official, to criticize a judicial decision." Bayrou also noted that the law was approved by MPs and the judges merely applied the law. It was reported Tuesday that the judges who convicted Le Pen have received threats, a move that has been criticized across the parliamentary spectrum.