France: Le Pen vows to run despite upheld graft conviction
After a court appeal rendered her eligible in theory to run while wearing an ankle tag, the far-right leader says she intends to stand next
After a court appeal rendered her eligible in theory to run while wearing an ankle tag, the far-right leader says she intends to stand next year. She repeated her plan to appeal again, saying the tag may not be needed. The face of France's far-right, Marine Le Pen, has said in a television interview that she intends to run for the presidency for her Rally (RN) party next year. This follows an appeals court upholding her graft conviction but reudcing a ban from holding public office, making it possible for her to run while wearing an electronic monitoring device on her ankle. She also reiterated her plan to appeal again to France's top court, the Court of Cassation in Paris, saying she considered herself "innocent." "I want to pursue all legal avenues to defend my innocence in this case. I am a candidate tonight," Le Pen told the TF1 TV channel in a prime time interview. Le Pen had previously said she would not run if sentenced to legal monitoring, and had left the courtroom earlier without speaking to journalists. "I had stated that I would not campaign while wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet," she told TF1.
"But since I have the option to file an appeal with the Court of Cassation... and that appeal suspends the effects of the ruling, I will campaign without an electronic monitoring bracelet," Le Pen said. Marine Le Pen sat down with French broadcaster TF1 in the evening Image: Christian Hartmann/Reuters Pool/AP Photo/dpa/picture alliance If the 57-year-old daughter of former French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen does run, it would be her fourth shot at the presidency, after coming second to Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and 2022 and failing to make the runoff vote in 2012. The Court of Cassation had indicated earlier that evening to expect a decision on whether it would hear Le Pen's appeal no earlier than next week. As to her protege Jordan Bardella, seen as her stand-in in the event that she could not or would not run, Le Pen said they would form a "partnership consisting of a reliable prime minister and president." What happened in court on Tuesday? In the long-awaited verdict, the appeals judge upheld her 2025 graft conviction, but lessened her sentence. Le Pen, 57, had been sentenced to a five-year ban from public office last year by a lower court, as well as four years in prison over a fake jobs scam when she was a member of the European Parliament Per Tuesday's ruling, her ban on standing in an election has been shortened to 15 months, and her prison term reduced to three years — two suspended and one with an electronic monitor.
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