Marine Le Pen ‘wants to talk politics’, but can she drown out the legal noise?

Though appeal judges shortened Le Pen’s original ban on running for office, they ruled she wear an electronic ankle tag, effectively limiting her movements. Photograph: Michel Euler/AP View image in fullscreen Though appeal judges shortened Le Pen’s original ban on running for office, they ruled she wear an electronic ankle tag, effectively limiting her movements. Photograph: Michel Euler/AP Analysis Marine Le Pen ‘wants to talk politics’, but can she drown out the legal noise? Angelique Chrisafis in Paris The French far-right leader’s presidential campaign is clouded in uncertainty under the shadow of an embezzlement conviction Marine Le Pen ’s decision to run for French president in 2027, despite her legal woes, has drawn comparisons from her opponents to Donald Trump. Just as the US president felt his voter base cared little about legal investigations against him, the French far-right leader shrugged off the leftwing protesters who shouted “criminal!” as she launched her presidential campaign at a market walkabout in western France on Wednesday. The previous day, an appeal court had upheld her conviction for the embezzlement of European parliament funds. The centrist Gabriel Attal said Le Pen was taking the presidential campaign hostage. “This seems like the same reflexes, the same rhetoric as Donald Trump,” he said. “Here we have a politician convicted twice [at her first trial in 2025 and on appeal this week] for embezzling public funds and who is now engaging in a kind of judicial guerilla warfare in order to stand.” Le Pen, the 57-year-old figurehead of the far-right, anti-immigration National Rally party (RN), said she would run for president because the election was all that mattered. “The French people will decide,” she said. Why is Marine Le Pen running for French presidency after court confirmed conviction? Read more On Tuesday Le Pen had been found guilty by appeal judges of playing a central role in orchestrating a fake jobs scam of unprecedented size and duration. But the appeal judges also shortened Le Pen’s original ban on running for office, allowing her a window to make a fourth bid for the presidency. With her party polling high, she feels she has fair chance after she was twice beaten in the final round by Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and 2022. The real difficulty for Le Pen is that the appeal court also handed her a form of custodial sentence of one year wearing an electronic tag that would monitor and limit her movements to and from her home. This would clearly have hampered her ability to campaign, preventing late-night rallies or limiting her ability to travel outside France . Le Pen’s response was to lodge an appeal to the highest court, questioning a point of legal process. This move effectively puts her sentence on hold, ensuring no tag is fitted before the next court decision in several months. But it leaves a cloud of uncertainty over the two-round vote in April and May. The question remains whether Le Pen might lose her