Marine Le Pen launches campaign after eligibility restored

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right National Rally party, launched her fourth presidential campaign on Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in the western town of La Flèche. Her announcement came one day after a Paris appeals court upheld her conviction for misusing European Parliament funds but shortened a ban on holding public office, effectively restoring her eligibility for the 2027 election.

The court's ruling on Tuesday confirmed Le Pen's March 2025 conviction for her role in a scheme that diverted parliamentary funds to pay party staff. While upholding the guilty verdict, the court reduced her original five-year ban from seeking office to 15 months, a period she had already served since the initial judgment. The court also sentenced her to a three-year prison term, with two years suspended and one year to be served under house arrest with electronic monitoring. Le Pen immediately announced she would appeal this sentence to France's highest court, the Court of Cassation, a move that suspends the enforcement of the electronic monitoring order.

In a televised address following the verdict, the 57-year-old politician declared her candidacy, stating that French voters should...