Far-right leader Le Pen launches presidential campaign; mixed reactions in France
Marine Le Pen has begun her presidential campaign after an appeals court confirmed her embezzlement conviction but allowed her to run. Public reactions are divided, with some cheering and others calling for her to return the money and go to jail.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen officially launched her presidential campaign in western France on Wednesday, a day after an appeals court upheld her conviction for embezzling European Union funds to pay party staff but allowed her to run. The mood was mixed as she shook hands in the street market of La Fleche in the Loire Valley. Some jeered: “Give the money back!” and “Go to jail!”, while others chanted “Marine, president!” – a sign of the tensions that may lie ahead.
Le Pen, 57, who has already run for president three times and is leading opinion polls for next year’s election, is seizing the opportunity to become modern France’s first far-right president, hoping voters will overlook her legal troubles. “The aim of our campaign is to bring about France’s revival,” she said in La Fleche, pledging to restore sovereignty, justice, security and education. Hours earlier, her team had launched a campaign website with the slogan “For France, Revival.”
Le Pen said La Fleche, a longtime left-wing stronghold that in March elected a 25-year-old mayor from her anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) party, symbolized the party’s growing reach. Asked repeatedly about Tuesday’s verdict, she sounded irritated and told reporters, “I’m not going to spend my whole campaign analysing legal matters.” Meanwhile, supporters clamoured for selfies, which she readily gave. “Marine, you’re the best!” said one.
The appeals court ordered Le Pen to wear an electronic ankle tag for a year, requiring her to return home from the campaign trail every night. Her announcement of a final appeal to France’s highest court, the Cour de Cassation, put that order on hold. The court said on Wednesday that it could rule on Le Pen’s appeal by early April 2027, before the two rounds of the election on April 18 and May 2, but procedural questions could shift the timing. If it upholds Tuesday’s judgment early enough, Le Pen might have to wear an electronic tag for the last weeks or days of her campaign. If she were elected president before it rules, she would not have to comply with the verdict until her term expires.
The RN had already started preparing for the possibility that Le Pen’s protege, 30-year-old Jordan Bardella, would be its candidate for president. Le Pen’s decision to stand set back Bardella’s own ambitions to run immediately for the highest office, although Le Pen says if she makes it to the Elysee Palace, he will be her prime minister. Looking earnest as he stood next to a beaming Le Pen in La Fleche, Bardella said he was very happy to be kicking off her campaign.
