Marine Le Pen Vows to Run for French President in 2027 — Even With a Court-Ordered Ankle Monitor

Marine Le Pen declared she will run for the French presidency next year despite a Paris appeals court's ruling this week that convicted her of embezzlement and ordered her to wear an electronic monitor. The decision reshapes the 2027 race by clearing — however grudgingly — the most prominent figure on the French far right to seek the country's highest office.

The court found Le Pen guilty of embezzlement and fined her 100,000 euros, but it softened the penalties that had threatened to end her political career. Judges cut her ban on holding elected office from five years to 45 months, two-thirds of it suspended, and reduced her prison term from four years to three, with two years suspended and the remaining year to be served under house arrest with an electronic monitor. The revised sentence left the door to a candidacy open rather than slamming it shut.

Le Pen wasted no time walking through it. She said she would appeal the ruling to France's highest court, the Cour de cassation, arguing the appeal would suspend the requirement that she wear the monitor for a year. "I will campaign without an electronic bracelet," she said, casting the prosecution as an attempt by the establishment to sideline her at the ballot box. France's highest court has previously indicated it could rule before the presidential vote, whose first round is scheduled for April and decisive runoff for May.

The case stems from accusations that Le Pen and members of her party misused European Parliament funds, channeling money intended for EU parliamentary aides toward party work in France. The affair has shadowed her for years, and the original trial verdict had raised the prospect that the three-time presidential candidate would be barred from a fourth run just as polls showed the French right ascendant.

For French politics, the ruling injects fresh uncertainty into an already volatile landscape. Le Pen's National Rally has steadily expanded its footprint, and her insistence on running — monitor or not — guarantees that questions of legitimacy, judicial independence and the limits of political accountability will hang over the campaign. Supporters cast the conviction as proof the system fears her; critics say no candidate should be above the law. With the Cour de cassation's timing now pivotal, the fate of France's 2027 election may hinge as much on a courtroom as on the campaign trail.