Marine Le Pen To Run For French Presidency Next Year Despite Court-Ordered Monitor

PARIS (AP) — Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Tuesday she will run for president of France next year despite being sentenced to wear a court-ordered electronic monitor for embezzlement.

The decision by the 57-year-old veteran of three presidential runs launches a fourth campaign unlike any other: potentially seeking votes while subject to monitoring and a judge’s decision on how and for how long the sentence will be imposed.

Le Pen said she would appeal the decision to France’s highest court and that the process would suspend her decision to wear a monitor for a year.

“That’s why I will campaign without an electronic bracelet,” he said in a television interview on Tuesday night. “I’m running for president tonight.”

The appeals court ruling cleared the way for Le Pen to run again, shortening a ban imposed by a court last year that barred her from holding public office for five years.

But the appeals court also said he had to wear an outfit. electronic monitor. Le Pen had previously said that it would not be possible to campaign in this outfit. But on Tuesday night he made clear that he believed he would no longer be subject to any monitoring and that he would be vindicated in his appeal to the Cour de Cassation.

“My hands are clean,” he said.

The Supreme Court has previously said it could rule before the presidential election. The first tour is in April.

The appeals court ruled that Le Pen oversaw years of abuse by her National Rally party. European Parliament funds by paying staff for European Union parliamentary assistants. He denied committing a crime, but during the trial the party He had made a “mistake”.

The appeals court upheld the guilty verdicts for all 11 defendants, including Le Pen and other party members. The party itself was also declared guilty.

However, the court reduced the sentences imposed by a lower court last year.

The five-year ban, which was transferred in March 2025, was postponed by two-thirds and reduced to 45 months. Le Pen has reached 15 months of the ban, meaning the potential hurdle has effectively been removed.

Le Pen has previously said that failing to run for a fourth term in 2027 would mean “political death”.

In the decision, the prison sentence of four years, two of which were suspended, was reduced to three years, two of which were suspended.

How often Le Pen will be allowed to go out wearing the monitor and other details about the monitoring are not yet known. Terms will be determined by another judge in the coming weeks or months.

After wearing the glasses for at least six months, the judge may allow Le Pen to remove them as a reward for good behavior that would include paying a 100 million euro ($114 million) fine that the appeals court included in her sentence.

From the courthouse, Le Pen went to the headquarters of the National Rally in Paris. guard Jordan Bardella It was seen earlier in the day. The party faces a potentially difficult decision about which of these two candidates might be in a better position to run in 2027.

Bardella, a member of the European Parliament, lacks Le Pen’s experience and this will be her first presidential election campaign.

Le Pen has appeared on the ballot in every presidential election since 1988: four times for her father and three times for herself.

When his father named the party the National Front Jean-Marie Le PenFounded in 1972. left this name In 2018, this was part of Marine Le Pen’s efforts to broaden her appeal by moving away from her polarizing father’s legacy. II. Around the world, France’s dealings with individuals who collaborated with the Nazi occupiers and numerous hate speech convictions, including Holocaust denial, made the National Front anathema to many voters.

Le Pen gave direction increasing popularity of his party as it tries to be more mainstream. It has been the largest single party in the parliament’s National Assembly since 2024, although it does not have a majority in the sharply divided lower house.

But an embezzlement conviction would leave him open to criticism from potential election opponents.

The court said Le Pen’s party embezzled 2.8 million euros ($3.2 million) over 11 years.

“The facts are serious,” said chief judge Michèle Agi.

However, in its written notes detailing the decision, the court noted the “voter’s freedom of choice” and said banning Le Pen from running for elected office for 15 months repaired the damage to public integrity caused by her misconduct.

“Ignoring this would undermine the principle of freedom to participate in elections, which is a fundamental condition for the democratic expression of universal suffrage,” the court said.

The judge was expected to spend several hours reading the entire decision. Instead, on a day when Paris temperatures exceeded 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), proceedings ended in less than 40 minutes in the unair-conditioned courtroom. Table fans provided a gentle breeze.

Associated Press journalists Nicolas Vaux-Montagny in Paris and Samuel Petrequin in London contributed to this report.