France's Le Pen says still running for president / Photo: Christian Hartmann - POOL/AFP
France's Le Pen says still running for president
French far-right chief Marine Le Pen Tuesday said she was still standing for president next year, after an appeals court confirmed her embezzlement conviction but paved the way for her to run with a shorter ban from office.
"This evening, I am a candidate in the presidential election," she said, ending uncertainty over whether she would run for the top job for the fourth time in elections viewed as her party's best ever chance to win the presidency.
The Paris appeals court earlier on Tuesday upheld a guilty verdict against the three-time presidential hopeful from the anti-immigration National Rally (RN) over a fake jobs scam at the European Parliament that diverted more than 2.8 million euros (more than $3 million) in EU funds.
It banned her from office for 15 months and sentenced her to one year under house arrest to be served with an electronic tag, throwing into doubt whether she would be able to campaign unhindered.
But the 57-year-old veteran politician on the evening news said she would appeal that decision with the country's highest court, which would automatically suspend that decision.
"The appeal to the court of cassation suspends the effects of the judgement, so I will campaign without an electronic ankle bracelet," she said on the evening news.
A lower court in March last year had initially sentenced her to a five-year ban from public office, quashing her ambitions to succeed outgoing centrist President Emmanuel Macron in next year's polls.
- 'So what?' -
Backdated to March 2025, the new 15-month ban from office expired this year, clearing the way for Le Pen to run in polls set for April and May 2027.
But it was not immediately certain if she would run after she said last week she would withdraw if wearing a tag prevented her from campaigning and pass the torch to her 30-year-old lieutenant Jordan Bardella.
Under France's house arrest system, a magistrate can approve times at which someone with an ankle tag can leave their home, and pre-approve outings nationwide.
Macron, visiting Syria on Tuesday, said he would not comment on a court decision.
In the northern town of Henin-Beaumont, an RN stronghold, 57-year-old plasterer Pierre Pagniez said he expected Le Pen to run.
"They need to stop trying to trip her up," he said, adding he preferred the three-time presidential candidate to the much less experienced Bardella.
Socialist party leader Olivier Faure was among leftists who said Le Pen should not run next year, as any candidate should be "exemplary".
"Le Pen, now, is alone with her conscience," he said.
- 'Witch hunt' -
Recent opinion polls have largely suggested the far right will lead in the first round of next year's vote, but are divided on the outcome of the second round run-off.
Many have shown slightly better results for Bardella than Le Pen, but their adversaries have inferred the veteran politician would be a fiercer opponent.
An opinion poll of more than 1,700 registered voters in May suggested Le Pen could win the runoffs next year if she competes.
Other polls have, however, suggested former centrist prime minister Edouard Philippe -- who is also courting right-wing voters -- could win a second round against the far right.
The first trial found Le Pen -- along with 24 former European lawmakers, assistants and accountants, as well as the party itself -- guilty of operating a system from 2004 to 2016 to use European Parliament funds to employ RN staff in France.
Le Pen claimed her party was the victim of a "witch hunt".
Le Pen, the party and 10 others appealed.
During the appeal trial, she denied that the RN had a system to embezzle European Parliament funds, and has said her party acted in "complete good faith".
But prosecutors allege that after she took over the party leadership in 2011 she "professionalised" a system to divert EU funds that was first introduced haphazardly by her late father, party co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen.
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