French court opens door to possible Le Pen presidential run, with ankle tag

PARIS – A French appeals court on July 7 upheld Marine Le Pen’s conviction for misusing European Union funds but shortened her ban on running for public office, in theory preserving a path for the far-right leader to run in the 2027 presidential election.

However, the court also sentenced Le Pen to a three-year jail term: two suspended and one with an electronic ankle tag. This could make a presidential campaign politically and logistically difficult.

It is now up to Le Pen to say if she will run to become modern France’s first far-right president. She is due to give a prime-time TV interview on TF1 at 8pm local time, in which she may make an announcement on her political future.

Le Pen has previously said she would be reluctant to wage a presidential campaign while serving a sentence under electronic monitoring, arguing that it would interfere with campaigning and undermine her credibility. But she is yet to confirm what she will do.

In March 2025, Le Pen was convicted of embezzlement and banned for five years with immediate effect from holding public office, and thus from making her long-planned fourth bid for the Elysee Palace.

The July 7 appeal judgment, under which Le Pen is ineligible to hold public office for 45 months, 30 of which are suspended, means she will be eligible to stand when voters go to the polls in April 2027 because she has already served most of the 15-month ban, which has been running since the 2025 ruling.

But her new prison sentence – to be served with an electronic tag – may prove almost as damaging as a ban.

Will Le Pen campaign with an electronic tag?

The decision is likely to trigger intense debate within her anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) party, which has spent months preparing for two possible futures: one led by Le Pen and another by party president Jordan Bardella.

The electronic tag was stipulated as part of a softened jail sentence, and means she would not actually have to go to jail.

A sentencing judge will decide on the terms of Le Pen’s tag, setting out the hours when she can be away from her home and the time she must return at night. Restrictions on weekends are usually tighter.

A judicial source said the tag would likely complicate a nationwide presidential campaign, as she would need to return home each night, but probably not make it impossible.

Le Pen could also ask for the tag to be removed after a few months for good behaviour, the source added.

Polls have consistently shown both figures as strong contenders to reach a presidential run-off. Some recent surveys have even suggested Bardella would outperform Le Pen in the first round.

Le Pen’s conviction stems from charges that RN figures misused European Parliament funds intended for parliamentary assistants, instead paying party staff in France. In 2025, judges found Le Pen had played a central role in the scheme, a finding she has consistently disputed.

The original verdict sparked condemnation from Le Pen’s allies in France and abroad, who accused the judiciary of influencing democratic competition.

Her opponents argued that elected officials must be held to the same legal standards as any other citizen.

“What is essential for us, what we have been saying for years, is that they misappropriated, stole public money – European taxpayers’ money,” the European Parliament’s lawyer, Patrick Maisonneuve, told reporters.

“We have been saying this for years, and it has now been confirmed for the second time: first by the lower court, and today by the Court of Appeal.” REUTERS