The appeal trial of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen against her conviction in a case involving the alleged misuse of European Union funds is set to begin on Tuesday.

A Paris court will reopen the case against Ms Le Pen, 11 other defendants, and her National Rally party.

It is a make-or-break moment for the popular politician, as the outcome will determine whether Ms Le Pen will be able to run as a candidate in France’s 2027 presidential election.

The case centres on the alleged sham employment of assistants to several French members of the European Parliament between 2004 and 2016.

Prosecutors argue that Ms Le Pen’s party used money from the European Parliament to pay staff who were working for her political party, rather than for parliamentary assistants.

However, Ms Le Pen has denied wrongdoing.

In a first-instance ruling last March, Ms Le Pen was found guilty.

The court therefore ordered that she be stripped of her eligibility to stand for public office for five years, with immediate effect.

The court also sentenced her to two years in prison to be served under electronic monitoring, a further two years suspended, and imposed a fine of €100,000 ($116,000).

If the appeals court upholds both the sentence and the immediate enforcement of the ban on holding office, Ms Le Pen would not be able to run for the presidency, reshaping an election in which President Emmanuel Macron is barred from seeking another term.

Nevertheless, Mr Macron has a fondness for “long-term battles”, his advisers often noted.

His comments on July 5, at a rally at the Cirque d’Hiver in Paris, confirmed that.

Addressing his party’s youth section, which was celebrating its 10th anniversary, Mr Macron said, “I will need you in two years, in five years, in 10 years.”

This presidential foray into the political arena was unusual. The French Constitution bars him from running for a third consecutive term in 2027. Yet Mr Macron has projected himself into a world in which he could be a presidential candidate again.

While he regularly deals with leaders who are unconcerned with democratic rules or political alternation, such as Presidents Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and PM Narendra Modi, Macron will have to abide by the rule introduced in the 2008 constitutional revision, which limits presidents to two consecutive terms.

“I am the first president in our history who does not have the constitutional right to run again,” he said with apparent regret on May 13, speaking to TF1.

(dpa/NAN)