Le Pen to run for president despite embezzlement conviction

PARIS — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen announced on Tuesday that she will run for president next year, despite being sentenced to one year of house arrest with an ankle monitor earlier in the day. Le Pen was was found guilty by the Paris Court of Appeals of embezzling funds from the European Parliament. As recently as last week, the far-right leader had said she would not run for president if wearing an ankle monitor. But Le Pen said she will bring the new verdict to a higher court and claimed that the move will lift her obligation to wear the bracelet. “The French people will have the final say,” she said on French broadcaster TF1. “We are innocent.” The 57-year-old, who will now prepare for her fourth presidential run, insisted she will “not change [her] mind” about running regardless of her legal troubles, saying no scenario could stop her from standing in the 2027 race. “My hands are clean … I will prove it,” said Le Pen. “Now that my electoral ban is up, I intend to exhaust all legal remedies available to any person subject to the law, so that I can defend my innocence.” Le Pen was expected to hand over her candidacy to the National Rally’s 30-year-old President Jordan Bardella on Tuesday. Opinion polls indicate that Bardella is slightly more popular than Le Pen, though his age and limited experience had sparked concerns among party insiders about whether he could withstand the rigors of a presidential campaign — or if he is ready to take the reins of one of the most powerful offices in the world. Le Pen insisted she would campaign alongside Bardella, promising him the role of prime minister if she’s elected. But Le Pen’s campaign won’t look like Bardella’s. With her more populist style, Le Pen champions a catch-all brand of economic policies, including defending much of the French welfare state — a stance that has long been met with disdain by conservative and business circles. Bardella, meanwhile, has been trying extending his party’s appeal to a broader right-wing electorate by striking a more pro-market tone. With current polls showing Le Pen leading the race in the first round of voting for the 2027 election, her opponents will likely use some of the damning language used by the judges in the verdict against her. Le Pen and the National Rally were accused of embezzling nearly €3 million by hiring party staff under fake parliamentary assistant contracts. The judges argued that by using public funds to prop up her party, Le Pen had “violated the trust voters are justified in placing in each of their representatives — by virtue of the duties they perform — and in the leader of the political party to which they belong or vote for.” “The far right everywhere, and especially in France, is corruption,” Raphaël Glucksmann, a likely center-left presidential candidate, told reporters on Tuesday after Le Pen’s sentencing. “Regardless of who runs, we will fight the National Rally to the end.” This story has been updated.