Updated ,first published
London: A French court has cleared the way for right-wing leader Marine Le Pen to run for the nation’s presidency in an election next year, but she will have to campaign while wearing an ankle bracelet after failing to overturn a conviction for misusing public funds.
The Paris Court of Appeal upheld a ruling against the National Rally leader for misusing European Union funds, but it reduced the penalty against her in a momentous decision that means she will not have to wear the monitoring device for as long as previously expected.
Le Pen, who has sought the presidency three times in the past, reacted to the verdict by declaring she would run for the post again despite the extraordinary personal restriction on a politician during a campaign.
With French President Emmanuel Macron unable to contest the next election due to term limits, the presidential contest is shaping up as a defining vote on the country’s direction when the National Assembly is deeply divided.
Le Pen’s presidential hopes have been in limbo since March 2025, when she received a five-year electoral ban for embezzling more than €4 million ($6.6 million) from the European Parliament. She denied guilt and appealed.
The five-year ban from standing for elected office came into force immediately. Le Pen was also issued a €100,000 fine and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, two of which were suspended and two of which were to be served in home detention.
Modifying that judgment, the Paris Court of Appeal sentenced Le Pen to three years in prison with two suspended and one year wearing an electronic tag. It upheld the €100,000 fine.
This would mean the National Rally leader would have to wear the ankle bracelet during the election campaign, an option she previously rejected. The election is schedule for April 18 next year.
Le Pen had a clear lead in an Ipsos opinion poll published last month, with 31 per cent support, well ahead of socialist rival Jean-Luc Mélenchon of La France Insoumise (LFI), who had 13 per cent support. Measuring public sentiment on the election is difficult, however, when the full list of candidates is a matter of speculation.
“Yes, I am a candidate in the presidential election,” Le Pen declared on Tuesday night in Paris (about 4:30am on Wednesday, AEST).
She praised her party colleague, Jordan Bardella, who would have been the National Rally candidate for the presidency if she had chosen not to run. Le Pen had previously said she did not want to campaign with an ankle bracelet or similar device.
“With Jordan Bardella, we are going to launch this presidential campaign, and it is together that we will go convince the French that we are the only ones who can make good decisions to change their future,” she said.
Mélenchon urged voters to reject National Rally, a party that promises a hard line against migration.
“Our goal is to rid the country of the RN and its candidates through the ballot box and the will of the people itself,” Mélenchon declared after the court ruling.
Le Pen has spent more than a decade transforming the movement founded by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, from a fringe nationalist party into what many view as a government-in-waiting, and a decision to uphold the ban would be bitter for her personally.
Le Pen was originally found guilty of being at the heart of a scheme to misappropriate EU funds intended to finance parliamentary assistants, using the money instead to pay RN employees.
With Reuters
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David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.
