Le Pen Cleared to Run in 2027 — With an Ankle Tag
The Paris appeals court upheld Marine Le Pen’s embezzlement conviction but cut her ban from office to 45 months, mostly suspended — effectively restoring her eligibility for the 2027 presidential election. The catch: a year of her reduced prison sentence is to be served at home with an electronic tag, which she has said would make campaigning impossible. All eleven co-defendants and the National Rally itself were also convicted, with a €100m fine imposed. Her lawyer called the verdict “a good start”.
The court threaded the needle with unusual explicitness, noting that “voters’ freedom of choice — a prerequisite for the expression of the democratic vote — must be a consideration” — the argument Le Pen’s movement has made since the original five-year ban she called her political death. What follows is a chess problem: a judge sets the tag’s conditions in the coming weeks, good behaviour — including paying the fine — could remove it after six months, a Cassation appeal remains open, and Jordan Bardella waits with polling suggesting he may now run stronger than she does. Watch her televised interview tonight, and the tag conditions that will decide whether eligibility means candidacy.