Marine Le Pen, facing judicial troubles, believes Jordan Bardella can win the 2027 presidential election in her place. The RN group president in the National Assembly expresses strong confidence in her potential successor, despite criticisms of his experience. She will be tried on appeal from January 13 to February 12, 2026, in the European parliamentary assistants case of the FN.
Marine Le Pen, three-time presidential candidate for the Front national in 2012 and 2017, and for the Rassemblement national (RN) in 2022, faces a first-instance conviction that jeopardizes her future candidacy. The Paris correctional court sentenced her to four years in prison, including two firm, a 100,000 euro fine, and five years of ineligibility with immediate execution. In an interview with La Tribune Dimanche, she states: “Jordan Bardella can win in my place the 2027 presidential election.” Aged 30, Bardella, RN president, “is the object of an absolutely outrageous smear campaign,” according to Le Pen, who adds she has “two million times more confidence in Jordan's youth, who has been a political militant for fifteen years,” than in Emmanuel Macron's.
Despite her situation, Le Pen says she does not want to “quit the fight,” but acknowledges that “the fight can have a thousand faces.” She insists: “The ideas will survive, the future of France is assured.” Her appeal is scheduled from January 13 to February 12, 2026. She comments: “There was a time when one could take a bullet. Today, one takes a judicial bullet. That means your death, in reality.”
On the political front, Le Pen criticizes Emmanuel Macron for refusing to dissolve the National Assembly, causing “the current disorder.” She calls to “go back to voting urgently” and, in case of dissolution, to appeal to the Constitutional Council, “the sole judge of the validity of a candidacy in an emergency situation.”
Meanwhile, within the RN, 2026 promises to be decisive for selecting the presidential candidate, with internal debates, particularly on the pension reform proposed by Le Pen since 2022. Two camps oppose each other: one wants to modify it to attract right-wing voters and tackle the pension deficit; the other defends its preservation as an electoral promise. On December 23, 2025, Le Pen was active in the Assembly with her 123 RN deputies during the vote on a special law to finance the state in 2026, amid a budget deadlock.
