Marine Le Pen challenges her conviction for embezzlement and confirms she will be a candidate for the Élysée in 2027

Marine Le Pen does not step aside. The leader of the French far-right announced this Tuesday on TF1 that she will be a candidate in the 2027 presidential elections, just hours after the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed her conviction for embezzlement of European Parliament funds and reduced the disqualification that threatened to leave her out of the race for the Élysée.

“Tonight I am a candidate for the presidential election,” Le Pen affirmed on French television’s prime-time news program. The leader of the National Rally assured that she will not change her mind and that she will appeal to the Court of Cassation to defend her innocence and prevent the conviction from affecting her campaign.

The sentence allows her to run because it reduces the disqualification to 45 months, 30 of which are suspended. The 15 firm months are already considered served since the conviction issued in the first instance in March 2025. The court, however, maintains a three-year prison sentence, two of them suspended, and one year of compliance with an electronic bracelet, in addition to a fine of 100,000 euros.

Le Pen is now trying to cling to the appeal to the Court of Cassation. Her thesis is that this path will suspend the effects of the sentence and will allow her to campaign without an electronic bracelet. “I have no doubt,” she said in the interview, although the deadlines and the specific execution will still depend on the next judicial steps. The French far-right breathes, but does not leave the court clean.

A conviction that strikes at the narrative of law and order

The case goes back a long way and directly affects the political heart of the former National Front. French justice considers it proven that European funds intended to pay parliamentary assistants ended up being used to finance party work in France. The investigated system extended for years and affected Le Pen, other party officials, and the party itself.

The Court of Appeal has confirmed the guilt for the diversion of public funds. The president of the chamber emphasized the seriousness of the facts due to the amount embezzled and because they involved elected officials obliged to serve the public interest. The European Parliament's lawyer was even more direct: he spoke of European and French taxpayers' money diverted by a political organization.

That is the most uncomfortable point for Le Pen. The leader who has built much of her discourse on authority, order, punishment, and exemplary conduct begins her fourth presidential race as a candidate convicted of embezzlement. Her party has been trying for years to erase the toxic brand inherited from Jean-Marie Le Pen and to dress its ultra project with an institutional appearance. The sentence once again places that cosmetic operation against a very specific limit: the judicially proven facts.

Le Pen does not accept that interpretation. On TF1, she insisted that two courts can be wrong and presented the decision as a democratic problem. “The French will have the last word,” she defended. It is the old reflex of the European far-right in the face of institutional controls: when justice is uncomfortable, they try to turn the criminal file into a plebiscite against the system.

Bardella remains within the plan

The interview also clears up another unknown. Jordan Bardella will not be the substitute for now, but Le Pen's political companion. The 30-year-old president of Rassemblement National was prepared to take over if the conviction sidelined his godmother. She has decided to keep the candidacy and present him as part of a “duo” for 2027.

Le Pen knows that Bardella is an essential piece. He has less personal wear and tear, connects with a part of the young electorate, and helps the RN project a renewed image. He also acts as a life insurance if the Court of Cassation or the execution of the sentence complicate the calendar again. The French ultra campaign begins with an official candidate, but also with a plan B sitting next to her.

The electoral opportunity is real. Emmanuel Macron cannot run again due to the constitutional term limit, the left arrives fragmented, and the centrist bloc is looking for a candidate amidst the erosion of Macronism. Rassemblement National leads a good part of the polls and has been growing for years on the fear of immigration, social unrest, insecurity, and the weariness of traditional parties.

Le Pen already lost against Macron in 2017 and 2022. In 2027, she wants to turn the third second round into a definitive assault. The difference is that now she doesn't just arrive as the great candidate of the European far-right. She also arrives as a leader convicted in a public funds case, forced to seek protection from the Court of Cassation, and awaiting a sentence with an electronic bracelet.

The French far-right goes on the attack

Rassemblement National will try to make the conviction electoral ammunition. The party has been feeding for months the idea that Le Pen is a victim of a judicial and political offensive to prevent the French from voting for her. It is the same script used by other ultra-right parties when they clash with courts, parliaments, or public controls: victimhood, appeal to the people, and attack on the "system".

The French opposition has already made its move. From the left, they have recalled that the case is not about an uncomfortable opinion or ideological persecution, but about embezzlement of European public funds. François Ruffin has warned that normalizing a campaign with a conviction shows how much corruption is accepted in public life. Marine Tondelier, from Les Écologistes, has argued that Le Pen has benefited from great judicial leniency.

The Élysée avoids entering the clash for now. Macron, asked from abroad, preferred not to comment on the judicial decision. The political calendar, however, is already underway. The first round of the presidential elections is scheduled for April 2027, and Le Pen wants to start quickly, with Bardella by her side and the appeal to the Court of Cassation as a temporary shield.

The ultra leader has already uttered the phrase her party was looking for. She will be a candidate. Now a presidential campaign begins with a conviction for embezzlement hanging around the neck of Rassemblement National.