PARIS — Should French President Emmanuel Macron decide to respond to France’s political chaos by calling new elections, his far-right rival Marine Le Pen will attempt to stand in the contest by immediately trying to appeal her election ban to the country’s highest constitutional authority and demanding a swift ruling.
Le Pen has been unable to run in elections since she was found guilty of embezzlement in March, a charge she continues to deny and has appealed. The start date of her appeal is expected to be decided on Monday and a verdict has been promised by summer 2026. Le Pen’s supporters hope the court will overturn her immediate election ban so she can run in the presidential election set for 2027.
However, a hypothetical new legislative election that would follow the likely collapse of Prime Minister François Bayrou’s minority government would come in a matter of weeks. Bayrou looks near certain to fall on Monday in a confidence vote over his planned €43.8 billion budget squeeze in large part thanks to opposition from Le Pen’s far-right National Rally.
“If the question is: Do we have confidence in this government? The answer is no, we don’t,” said Le Pen after meeting with Bayrou Tuesday.
Le Pen promised in July to stand in any new elections despite her legal troubles. A National Rally official, who like others quoted in this piece was granted anonymity to candidly discuss the case, told POLITICO that the party is not considering finding a replacement.
A Le Pen adviser explained that if new elections were called, she would likely then submit her paperwork to run with election authorities in her constituency, which would undoubtedly be rejected. She could then file an appeal with an administrative court which, if rejected, she could appeal on the constitutionality of her ban with the hopes that the case would quickly make its way to the constitutional court.
An individual familiar with the court’s inner workings told POLITICO it would take six months for the judges to render a decision, making it impossible for Le Pen to run.
But some lawyers working for Le Pen believe they have found precedents for cases to be settled very quickly, the Le Pen adviser said, including one in favor of Macron’s political party in May 2017 shortly after his presidential victory but before legislative elections the following month.
The individual familiar with the court said the 2017 case is “absolutely not comparable” to Le Pen’s.
Le Pen is also flexing her muscles in Brussels by calling for a censure motion against European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over the latest steps toward finally closing the European Union’s major free-trade deal with the Mercosur countries.
Pauline de Saint Remy and Joshua Berlinger contributed to this report.
The post Marine Le Pen has a plan to run in potential French snap vote appeared first on Politico.
