After months of anticipation, a Paris appeals court on Tuesday (July 7) cleared the way for French far-right leader Marine Le Pen to contest the 2027 presidential election, with a caveat.Le Pen received a five-year ban from public office in March 2025 after being convicted of embezzling over €4 million ($4.6 million) from the European Parliament. She has denied wrongdoing and appealed the ruling.The court held Le Pen guilty of embezzlement, but reduced her ban on holding elected office from five years to 45 months, two-thirds of which are suspended. It also cut her prison time for four years to three, of which two are suspended.However, she is required to wear an ankle bracelet for the remainder of her time, something that she had immediately ruled out. It remains unclear whether she would proceed with her campaign.Le Pen had previously said that she might decide not to run if the court imposes restrictions that make campaigning difficult. “If I’m allowed to be a candidate but am effectively prevented from campaigning freely, then you understand that wouldn’t be possible,” Le Pen said in an interview last week.If Le Pen chooses to tap out of the race, National Rally president Jordan Bardella, her protégé, is expected to become the French far-right’s presidential candidate in 2027. This could prove significant, considering she has spent more than a decade transforming the National Rally from a fringe movement into one of France’s strongest political forces.Marine Le Pen, 57, is the youngest daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front, a party that was long associated with the French far-right’s most hardline politics. She took over the party in 2011 and set about broadening its appeal while retaining its nationalist and anti-immigration platform.Story continues below this adUnder her leadership, the party softened its public image, rebranded its Euroscepticism as French nationalism, and retained the party’s traditional doctrine, “France for the French”. She has maintained the party’s anti-immigration stance while vocally opposing anti-Semitism.Also in Explained | Why India’s decades-old friendship with France persists despite pressures from Trump 2.0Marine expelled her father in 2015 after a public dispute over his comments about the Holocaust. Three years later, the party was renamed the National Rally, part of her effort to distance it from its past. In the 2019 European Parliament elections, it emerged as the largest French party, overtaking President Emmanuel Macron’s alliance and cementing its place as a mainstream political force.Marine Le Pen contested the French presidential elections in 2017 and 2022, winning more than 40% of the vote against Emmanuel Macron in the latter. Although she stepped down as party president in 2022, she has remained the party’s most influential figure and was widely expected to make another bid for the presidency in 2027.And who is Jordan Bardella?Jordan Bardella joined the National Rally as a teenager and rapidly rose through its ranks, becoming party president in 2022 after Marine Le Pen stepped down to focus on her parliamentary role. Articulate and media-savvy, he has helped the party broaden its support, especially among younger voters, while sticking to the political strategy laid down by Le Pen.How did the National Rally become a political force?Story continues below this adThe party was founded in 1972 as the National Front (FN) by Jean-Marie Le Pen and other far-right activists. It spent decades on the political margins, campaigning against immigration and European integration before gradually expanding its electoral base from the 1980s onwards.NewsletterFollow our daily newsletter so you never miss anything important. On Wednesday, we answer readers' questions.SubscribeToday, the National Rally advocates tighter immigration controls, greater French sovereignty and a tougher approach to European Union rules, while framing many of its policies around purchasing power and the cost of living. It has called for stricter border controls, limits on immigration and giving French citizens priority in access to some welfare benefits and public services. While it no longer advocates leaving the European Union or the euro, it remains sceptical of deeper European integration and has argued for greater national control over policymaking and borders.On economic issues, the party has sought to appeal to middle-class voters by promising tax cuts, lower energy costs and ways to boost household purchasing power. Under Marine Le Pen, those positions found a broader electoral audience, helping transform the party into one of France’s dominant political forces.