French appeals court allows far-right Marine Le Pen to run for president, but imposes ankle monitor
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Despite a conviction for misusing EU funds, the Paris appeals court has reduced Marine Le Pen’s ban from office, enabling the far-right National Rally leader to run in 2027—if she submits to a year-long electronic ankle tag. Critics argue this leniency exposes the justice system’s failure to hold reactionary politicians accountable.
On Tuesday, a Paris appeals court took the controversial step of shortening the five-year ban on Marine Le Pen, notorious leader of the far-right National Rally, thus paving the way for her to participate in France's 2027 presidential election. The court maintained her conviction for misappropriating European Union funds, but instead of enforcing a meaningful ban, it imposed a mere year-long electronic ankle tag—a condition Le Pen claims would hinder her campaign, yet still leaves the door open for her return to power.
Le Pen, 57, was found guilty in March 2023 of siphoning off €1.4 million in EU parliamentary allowances to pay party operatives under the guise of parliamentary assistants. This blatant misuse of public funds, strictly forbidden by EU rules, resulted in a four-year prison sentence (with two years suspended) and a €100,000 fine. The National Rally party was fined €2 million, half of which was suspended—penalties many see as insufficient given the scale of the corruption.
"If I’m allowed to be a candidate but am effectively prevented from campaigning freely, then you understand that wouldn’t be possible," Le Pen complained in a recent interview, attempting to cast herself as a victim rather than an architect of fraud.
Le Pen, who has twice advanced to the final round of France’s presidential elections, losing both times to Emmanuel Macron, now threatens to run again—provided she can do so without the ankle tag. She is expected to further her narrative of persecution in a prime-time interview on TF1.
Le Pen may still appeal to France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, in a bid to delay or overturn her sentence before the election. Meanwhile, National Rally president Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s hand-picked successor, used social media to praise her and decry the supposed injustice of her exclusion, ignoring the real injustice done to the public by her party’s corruption.