French presidential front-runner Le Pen vows to challenge ineligibility ruling
French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen vowed to challenge a court verdict that barred her from running for office for five years.
“I am combative, I will not allow myself to be eliminated like this. I will pursue every legal recourse available to me,” Marine Le Pen told broadcaster TF1 on Monday.
She said that she would demand the appeal decision to be made in time so that she can consider a candidacy for the 2027 presidential election.
“There is a narrow path, certainly, but it exists,” Le Pen said, adding that she was not ready to accept such a “denial of democracy” so easily.
Le Pen said the magistrate “deliberately” enforced the provisional execution of her ineligibility, effectively rendering her appeal useless to block her from running and being elected in the presidential election.
“So, this was a political decision that was being made,” Le Pen claimed and said that she would appeal to the decision “as soon as possible.”
According to her, the rule of law was “completely violated” by the verdict.
“No judge can decide to interfere in an election as important as the presidential election, especially by violating the rule of law,” she added.
The 56-year-old front-runner for the 2027 presidential contest was banned from running for public office for five years after being convicted of embezzling EU funds.
Le Pen also expressed her disagreement with the conviction.
“This is an administrative disagreement with the European Parliament: there is no personal enrichment, there is no corruption,” she said.
Le Pen was also handed a four-year prison sentence, including two years with an electronic tag and the other two suspended, and a €100,000 ($108,200) fine.
