Marine Le Pen to run for presidency and appeal against conviction in France’s highest court

French far-right leader announces decision after court orders her to wear ankle tag over embezzlement

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has announced she will run for the presidency in 2027 and will lodge an appeal to France’s highest court over her sentence to wear an electronic ankle tag for the embezzlement of European parliament funds.

“Tonight, I am a candidate in the presidential election,” Le Pen, 57, told TF1 television on Tuesday night.

Earlier on Tuesday a French court of appeal had upheld Le Pen’s conviction for playing a central role in orchestrating a fake-jobs scam of unprecedented size and duration. She was found guilty of having played a key part in the embezzlement of more than €2.8m in European parliament funds and funnelling the money into her party in Paris between 2004 and 2016.

Although the court shortened Le Pen’s ban on running for elected office, effectively allowing her to run in the spring, it also handed her a three-year jail term, with two years suspended. During the other year, it said, she must wear ​an electronic ankle tag for monitoring, restricting the hours she could leave her home.

Le Pen, who heads the anti-immigration the National Rally (RN) party, had previously suggested she would not run for president if her movements were restricted.

Under France’s house arrest system, a magistrate can approve times at which someone with an ankle tag can leave their home, and has to pre-approve outings nationwide. Le Pen had said that wearing a tag would make it impossible for her to go out at night and attend rallies.

However on Tuesday night she announced she would make a further appeal against her conviction to France’s highest court, the court of cassation, a move that would effectively put on hold Tuesday’s sentencing and mean there will now be a window of time during which Le Pen will not be fitted with any kind of electronic tag.

“I consider us innocent of the things we are accused of,” she told TF1, saying she believed this would allow her to campaign freely until the two-round presidential election in April and May, even though the court may be able to rule before then.

“The appeal to the court of cassation suspends the effects of the judgment, so I will campaign without an electronic ankle bracelet,” she told TF1. The move, she added, would allow voters “the last word”.

All now depends on timings. The court of cassation would normally take between one year and 18 months to produce a decision on the legal basis of Le Pen’s conviction. It is not certain if the court could rule any earlier than usual.

On