France’s most senior appeal prosecutor has said Marine Le Pen will be able to open her campaign for the 2027 presidential election without the electronic tag imposed on her by a Paris court.
Marie-Suzanne Le Quéau, prosecutor general at the Paris Court of Appeal, told broadcaster TF1 on July 8 that she would not enforce the judgment handed down the previous day while an appeal to the Court of Cassation was pending. If the National Rally leader campaigned, as she had announced she would, she would do so without a tag, Le Quéau said.
The prosecutor said Le Pen was once again presumed innocent, as was any convicted person who lodged an appeal on points of law, and that the sentence was suspended in the meantime.
Le Quéau also addressed what would happen if Le Pen were to win the presidency. Should the appeal be rejected, the judgment would become enforceable, though it would then be suspended by presidential immunity and could be carried out only once the term of office had ended, she said.
The Court of Cassation said on July 8 it could rule on the appeal by early April 2027 at the latest, roughly a fortnight before the first round of voting on April 18. A run-off is scheduled for May 2.
On July 7 the appeal court upheld Le Pen’s conviction for embezzling public funds but softened the penalties handed down at first instance on March 31, 2025.
Her prison sentence was cut from four years to three, with two suspended and the remaining year to be served at home under electronic monitoring. A fine of €100,000 was left standing.
The court reduced her ban on holding elected office from five years to 45 months, of which 30 were suspended. Because Le Pen has already served the remaining 15 months since the original verdict, the bar to a fourth presidential run has effectively been lifted.
Le Pen announced on TF1 on the evening of the verdict that she would stand and would appeal to the Court of Cassation. “I will therefore campaign without an electronic bracelet,” she said, according to the Associated Press.
She had repeatedly said she would not run if obliged to campaign under electronic monitoring, arguing that a presidential candidate had to be free to move around the country.
Chief judge Michèle Agi found that the party, formerly the National Front, had misused €2.8 million of European Parliament money to pay its own staff between 2004 and 2016. All 11 defendants were convicted, along with the party itself.
Le Pen has denied criminal wrongdoing, while conceding during the trial that the party had made a mistake.
