France’s Marine Le Pen to run for president despite conviction
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French far-right leader Marine Le Pen leaving a party meeting in Paris on July 7, following the verdict in her appeals case.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Marine Le Pen confirmed she will run for president in 2027 despite an appeals court upholding her embezzlement conviction and imposing a 15-month ban from office.
- She plans to appeal to the highest court, which suspends the ban's effects, allowing her to campaign without an electronic ankle tag.
- Opinion polls show a strong far-right lead in the first round, with Le Pen seen as a tougher candidate than her lieutenant Jordan Bardella by supporters and rivals alike.
AI generated
PARIS – France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen hit the campaign trail on July 8, fresh off her announcement the day before that she would run for president despite an embezzlement conviction.
Surrounded by crowds and journalists in the western town of La Fleche, which was won by her anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party in municipal elections, Le Pen brushed aside criticism of her candidacy.
The Paris appeals court had on July 7 upheld a guilty verdict against the presidential hopeful over a fake-jobs scam at the European Parliament that diverted more than €2.8 million (S$4.1 million) in European Union funds.
It banned her from office for 15 months and sentenced her to one year under house arrest to be served with an electronic tag, throwing into doubt whether she would be able to campaign unhindered.
But the 57-year-old veteran politician said she would appeal against that decision to the country’s highest court, which would automatically suspend the decision. “The court has restored my eligibility. I am innocent, and I am filing an appeal to the Court of Cassation to prove my innocence,” she said.
“You have to take risks to win,” she added.
Le Pen is set to run for president for a fourth time in 2027’s polls that her anti-immigration party views as its best chance yet to take power. She brushed off the risk that the Court of Cassation would reject her appeal before the vote, as well as criticism of her candidacy, steering the narrative to policies she hopes will win her the Elysee.
“I’m not going to spend the presidential campaign giving you legal analyses,” she said.
“If my political opponents have no other arguments than that, it means that on substance they have absolutely nothing to offer the French,” she added.
While she was greeted by supporters in La Fleche, she also faced boos from several dozen left-wing activists holding signs reading “Le Pen convicted”.
She hit the trail side by side with her lieutenant Jordan Bardella, 30, who had been waiting in the wings in case Le Pen was barred from running. He has been tipped as her prime minister if she wins.
Highly popular on the right, Bardella said he felt “neither relief nor disappointment” at not being his party’s candidate. He said he was “delighted” Le Pen was running and that they would “continue to work hand in hand”.
A lower court in March 2026 had initially sentenced Le Pen to a five-year ban from public office, quashing her ambitions to succeed outgoing centrist President Emmanuel Macron in the 2027 presidential election.
‘So what?’
Backdated to March 2025, the new 15-month ban from office expired in 2026, clearing the way for Le Pen to run in polls set for April and May 2027.
But it was not immediately certain if she would run after she said the previous week that she would withdraw if wearing a tag prevented her from campaigning and pass the torch to Bardella.
Marine Le Pen and lieutenant Jordan Bardella leaving a party meeting in Paris on July 7, following the verdict in Le Pen’s appeals case.
PHOTOS: REUTERS, AFP
Under France’s house arrest system, a magistrate can approve times at which someone with an ankle tag can leave their home, and pre-approve outings nationwide.
Macron, visiting Syria on July 7, said he would not comment on a court decision.
In the northern town of Henin-Beaumont, an RN stronghold, 57-year-old plasterer Pierre Pagniez said he expected Le Pen to run.
“They need to stop trying to trip her up,” he said, adding that he preferred the three-time presidential candidate to the much less experienced Bardella.
Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure was among leftists who said that Le Pen should not run in 2027, as any candidate should be “exemplary”.
“Le Pen, now, is alone with her conscience,” he said.
‘Witch hunt’
Recent opinion polls have largely suggested that the far right will lead in the first round of 2027’s vote, but are divided on the outcome of the second-round run-off.
Many have shown slightly better results for Bardella than Le Pen, but their adversaries have inferred that the veteran politician would be a fiercer opponent.
An opinion poll of more than 1,700 registered voters in May suggested Le Pen could win the run-offs in 2027 if she competes.
Other polls have, however, suggested former centrist prime minister Edouard Philippe – who is also courting right-wing voters – could win a second round against the far right. AFP
The first trial found Le Pen – along with 24 former European lawmakers, assistants and accountants, as well as the party itself – guilty of operating a system from 2004 to 2016 to use European Parliament funds to employ RN staff in France.
Le Pen claimed her party was the victim of a “witch hunt”.
Le Pen, the party and 10 others appealed.
During the appeals trial, she denied that the RN had a system to embezzle European Parliament funds, and has said her party acted in “complete good faith”.
But prosecutors allege that after she took over the party leadership in 2011, she “professionalised” a system to divert EU funds that was first introduced haphazardly by her late father, party co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen. AFP
