Here are four key questions hanging over Le Pen’s political resurrection and her upcoming presidential campaign.
What are the legal next steps?
One key challenge for Le Pen is to avoid having to campaign while her movement is restricted by a court order.
In principle, when an appeal decision is challenged before the Cour de cassation, the sentence is suspended. So by appealing Tuesday’s ruling, Le Pen can make good on her promise not to campaign while wearing an electronic ankle bracelet.
But there is a catch: The president of the highest court has already said the judges would do their best to rule before the presidential election. If she loses that final appeal, she could be forced to wear a bracelet during the last stretch of the race.
Le Pen would then have to try to secure lenient conditions for her house arrest. Magistrates in charge of defining such conditions “could give her a wide time frame [for campaign outings], but the obligation is that she must be at home at night,” said Eva Barouk, a criminal lawyer in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.
How strong is she now as a candidate?
As a candidate, Le Pen is on strong footing. A June poll by the French institute Ifop showed her coming in first place with 32 percent of the vote in the first round of the election.
Her 30-year-old protégé Bardella, who would have taken over as the National Rally’s nominee if she had been barred from running, polls slightly higher. He polled at 36 percent of the vote in the first round.