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Is this France’s far-right National Rally’s best chance to take power?

CN
CitrixNews Staff
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Is this France’s far-right National Rally’s best chance to take power?
play videoepa13096173 French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, member of parliament for the Rassemblement National (National Rally - RN) party, poses before an interview on the evening news broadcast of French TV channel TF1, following the verdict in her appeal trial over misuse of EU funds, in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, France, 07 July 2026. EPA/Christian Hartmann / POOL MAXPPP OUTVideo Duration 28 minutes 00 seconds play-arrow28:00

A court ruling clears the way for Marine Le Pen to run for president next year.

A French court ruling allows the leader of the far-right National Rally to run for president next April. It reduced and suspended Marine Le Pen’s prison sentence and ban on seeking public office, while upholding her conviction over a European Parliament jobs scam.

She will have to wear an electronic monitor for a year while on house arrest. Le Pen has said it will prevent her from campaigning and plans to challenge the decision in France’s highest court. But she is leading in opinion polls.

Will her candidacy take her all the way to the Elysee Palace? Or will voters who are wary of Le Pen’s nationalist, anti-migrant policies unite around a common rival, as they have in the past?

Bruno Cautres – Professor at the Centre for Political Research at Sciences Po

Rim-Sarah Alouane – Legal scholar specialising in civil liberties and constitutional law

Victor Mallet – Senior editor and former Paris bureau chief at The Financial Times and author of the book Far-Right France: Le Pen, Bardella and the Future of Europe

Originally reported by Al Jazeera. Read the full story at the original source.