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Conservative French politician Marine Le Pen announced her 2027 bid for president on Tuesday despite her embezzlement conviction in March of last year. The 57-year-old planned to run the campaign alongside National Rally leader Jordan Bardella, and without wearing her court-ordered electronic monitoring bracelet, she said in an interview posted Tuesday. That’s because her ongoing appeal suspends the requirement, she said.
Le Pen, daughter of former French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, emerged as the National Rally party’s challenger to incumbent President Emmanuel Macron. She ended as Macron’s runner-up in the 2017 and 2022 elections, and planned to run again in 2027 with the country’s growing conservative support.
However, Le Pen and eight other current or former members of her party were convicted of embezzling in 2025 for using money meant for European Union parliamentary aides to pay party staffers. Le Pen repeatedly denied the allegations. The court barred Le Pen from running for public office for five years, and issued a $108,200 fine.
How is she able to run with the court-ordered election ban? An appeals court decided to shorten Le Pen’s court-ordered campaigning ban by several years, removing the roadblocks for a 2027 run. Le Pen on Tuesday characterized her original sentence as a democratic problem since it made her ineligible to run. She argued that the people of France must decide who can run for president, not the courts. Despite the shortened sentence, the appeals court still ruled to uphold the conviction and as well as the requirement that Le Pen wear an electronic monitoring device. Le Pen had previously said such a device would make campaigning impossible.
Le Pen on Tuesday said she planned to appeal her case to France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation. She said she expected the court to rule in her favor, and therefore planned to campaign without the monitoring bracelet. Le Pen called on citizens to support her campaign and help the country get back on its feet. From education, to healthcare, to child protection and deindustrialization, nothing is working right in France, she said.
Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Reichard and Jenny Lind Schmitt’s 2024 report on The World and Everything in It about France’s growing conservative political party.