Marine Le Pen appeal trial ends with presidential race at stake

Marine Le Pen leaves a Paris courthouse on the last day of her appeal trial on Wednesday, with judges now expected to take months to consider their verdict. Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA

Defence lawyers for Marine Le Pen have told a Paris appeals court she did not orchestrate a system to misuse European parliament funds, at the close of an embezzlement trial that will determine whether the far-right leader can run in the 2027 French presidential election.

Le Pen’s lawyer, Sandra Chirac Kollarik, told the court on Wednesday: “At no moment did Marine Le Pen imagine that she broke the rules.” She added: “Never in her life would she have deliberately accepted making a false contract.”