Le Pen announces 2027 run after court cuts electoral ban

Marine Le Pen has confirmed she will run for the French presidency in 2027 after an appeals court shortened a ban on holding public office. The 57-year-old National Rally (RN) leader made the announcement in a prime-time interview on TF1 on Tuesday night. Her candidacy will proceed despite a requirement to wear an electronic ankle tag while campaigning.

The court ruling alters a political landscape that had been frozen since March 2025, when Le Pen received a five-year electoral ban. She was found guilty of embezzling €1.4m in European Parliament funds to pay RN staff between 2004 and 2016. The scheme, first reported by French investigative news website Mediapart in 2013, involved a wider system of fake jobs that led to a 2023 trial of more than two dozen defendants. Her party was also ordered to pay a €2m fine, half of which was suspended.

For European investors and markets, Le Pen's return to the ballot box re-introduces a profound element of political risk into the continent's second-largest economy. The RN currently leads opinion polls for the April 2027 election. The prospect of a French president convicted of misappropriating EU funds would create unprecedented friction with Brussels, raising immediate questions about Paris's relationship with EU institutions and budget mechanisms.

The European Parliament’s lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, said the ruling “demonstrated that justice is independent”, noting a “significant sentence reduction” that left him “partially” satisfied. He described the outcome as a “good start”, though no decision has been made on whether to appeal to France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation.

Rival parties have reacted with fury to the prospect of her candidacy. Greens leader Marine Tondelier said that “in a normal world where the RN had even the slightest shred of morality, [Le Pen] would give up ... because you can’t decently stand `for election after being convicted of misappropriating public funds”.

Le Pen, who has failed three times to win the presidency over 15 years, is betting that voters will overlook her conviction. She will campaign alongside protégé Jordan Bardella, 30, who has stated he is preparing to become her prime minister rather than her replacement. Polls show both as strong contenders for a runoff, with some recent surveys suggesting Mr Bardella would outperform Le Pen in the first round.