A sentence of "ineligibility," which would ban her from being elected to public office, may await Marine Le Pen on March 31, when the Paris Correctional Court judges are due to hand down their decision in the case of the far-right Front National (FN) party's allegedly fake European parliamentary assistant jobs. Against Le Pen, leader of the Rassemblement National (RN, renamed from FN in 2018), on trial for "misappropriation of public funds and complicity," the prosecutors' office requested, on November 13, 2024, a five-year prison sentence, including three years suspended, and a five-year ban on being elected to public office, effective immediately.

At this stage, Le Pen is presumed innocent of the charges laid against her. However, the possibility that she could be banned from being elected has raised questions about her ability to even stand in the next presidential election, about what would happen to her current elected position as an MP, or even about her ability to join a government, if another far-right candidate were to be elected to the presidency and have to appoint ministers.

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