Marine Le Pen previously said that campaigning while wearing an electronic tag wouldn't be possible.

19:44, Tue, Jul 7, 2026 Updated: 20:19, Tue, Jul 7, 2026

Marine le Pen

Marine Le Pen has announced she will run for the French presidency (Image: Getty)

French far-right politician Marine Le Pen has announced she will run for her country's presidency next year, hours after a court ruling. Le Pen, 57, who was found guilty of misappropriation of European parliament funds, said she will appeal to France's highest court against an embezzlement conviction which would require her to wear an electronic tag for a year.

On Tuesday, a court of appeal declared the far-right leader guilty of embezzlement and fined her €100,000 ($114,000). The court also cut her prison sentence from four years to three, two of which are suspended, adding that the one year is to be served under house arrest with an electronic monitor.

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"I can't campaign with a tag. I want to pursue all legal avenues to defend my innocence in this case," she said. It is understood that the loss to European funds was around €4.4m (£4.2m). French newspaper Le Monde reported on how Le Pen "had been at the center of a broader 'system' designed to use European Union funds allocated to paying parliamentary assistants to, instead, pay employees working for the party".

Le Pen, leader of the National Rally party, was accused of having had the European Parliament, where she served as an MEP from 2004 to 2017, pay four parliamentary assistants who actually worked for her party, rather than on parliamentary business, French newspaper Le Monde added.

Le Pen's party, the newspaper added, was also sentenced, as a legal entity, to a €2 million fine, including €1 million suspended. It has also ordered an additional €1 million to be confiscated. Le Pen's lawyer said: "Now, we are considering the entirety of this decision. We will discuss it this afternoon and will issue a statement later on the possible next steps after this decision."

Meanwhile, rumours indicated Jordan Bardella, who runs the party's day-to-day operations, as a possible replacement for Le Pen.

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Emmanuel Macron. (Image: Getty)

Le Pen herself previously said Bardella, 30, could have run in the 2027 presidential elections. This possible succession, howver, created some degree of friction between the two politicians as they had different ideas on sepcific policies, especially regarding the economy and France's pension system.

Le Pen is trying to run for president for a fourth time next year. She has already lost twice to Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and 2022.