French far-right leader Marine Le Pen announced on Tuesday that she will run for president in 2027 after an appeal court shortened her ban on holding public office.
Le Pen’s presidential hopes had been in limbo since March 2025, when she received a five-year electoral ban for using money from the European Parliament to pay wages for staff at her anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) party in France.
On Tuesday, the Paris appeal court upheld Le Pen’s conviction for misusing European Parliament funds but reduced the ban on running for office, clearing the way for the 57-year-old to stand in next year’s election.
The RN leads opinion polls for next April’s election. And Le Pen, who has three times failed to win the presidency for the far-right in 15 years at the helm, is gambling that voters can overlook the guilty verdict.
“Tonight, I am a candidate in the presidential election,” she said in a prime-time interview on TF1 TV, hours after the ruling.
Le Pen had over the past months said she would not run for the presidency if the court put her under electronic monitoring because it would interfere with campaigning and undermine her credibility.