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French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said she would not run for president in 2027 if the court sentences her to wear an electronic bracelet, as she would not be able to campaign even if her electoral ban was lifted.
“We can’t campaign under these conditions,” Le Pen, who leads the far-right party National Rally (RN) in the French parliament, said in an interview with French broadcaster BFM TV on Wednesday.
“Campaigning under house arrest is not possible,” she said. “Can you campaign without going out in the evenings to meet your constituents at rallies?”
In March 2025, a Paris court ruled that Le Pen was at the heart of a “fraudulent system” used by her party to siphon off European Parliament funds worth €2.9 million, doling out a five-year ban from public office.
During the appeal trial, Le Pen acknowledged that some employees paid as EU parliamentary aides performed work for her party but insisted that she believed such work was allowed and never attempted to hide it.
“The mistake lies here: there were certainly some aides, on a case-by-case basis, who must have worked either marginally, more substantially, or entirely … for the benefit of the party. And voilà,” Le Pen told the court.
She also reproached European Parliament officials for not warning her party that the way it was hiring people could violate any rules.
The appeal ended on 11 February, and the Paris court handling the case set the verdict date of 7 July.
If the appeals court upholds the first sentence, the three-time presidential candidate would be banned from running in 2027, widely seen as her best chance at France’s top job.
Le Pen made it to the second round in the 2017 and 2022 presidential polls, losing to President Emmanuel Macron both times.
Macron cannot run again next year after reaching the limit of two consecutive terms in office.
Le Pen said on Wednesday that the decision to run for the 2027 presidential election is not in her hands but in those of the judges.
“I know perfectly well that the decision regarding this candidacy isn’t mine to make,” she stated. “It’s in the hands of three judges who will decide whether or not the millions of French people who want to vote for me will be able to do so.”
If she ends up unable to run for office and RN president and her protege, Jordan Bardella, were to win the presidency in 2027, he will determine “the role he wants me to have,” Le Pen stated.
“If I cannot be a candidate, he will determine at what level he needs my presence, my advice and my experience.”
“Jordan will find a prime minister, I have no doubt about that,” Le Pen said, rejecting that she would provide “guardianship” as Bardella “is a free man”.
According to a November 2025 poll, should he run, Bardella would win the second round of the 2027 elections, no matter who stands against him.
Additional sources • AP, AFP