Marine Le Pen Vows to Fight Ban, Won’t Allow French Election to Be ‘Stolen’ by Lawfare Ruling

National Rally leader Marine Le Pen has vowed to fight a Paris court’s decision to ban her from standing in the upcoming presidential election, accusing the judiciary of acting politically and attempting to undermine the people’s sovereignty.

In an unprecedented move, magistrates in Paris on Monday sentenced former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen to a five-year ban from standing for any political office in France after finding her guilty of embezzlement over the alleged use of European Union funds for her populist National Rally party at the EU Parliament for political activities in France. Crucially, the judges sided with demands for prosecutors to enact the ban immediately and for it to remain in place during any appeal, making it likely that the prohibition would remain in force during the 2027 presidential race to replace Emmanuel Macron, who will be term-limited from running again for the presidency.

Le Pen, the undisputed frontrunner in the polls for the presidential race, has claimed the ruling is something usually seen in “authoritarian regimes”, arguing that the presumption of innocence is typically returned to those in France who launch appeals against convictions. Therefore, the ban on her from running for office during the appeal process violates the rule of law, she asserted.

“This evening, there are millions of French people who are indignant, indignant to an unimaginable point, seeing that, in France, in the country of human rights, judges have implemented practices that we believed reserved for authoritarian regimes,” the National Rally leader said in an interview on Monday evening according to Le Figaro.

Despite previously claiming that such a ban would represent a “political death sentence”, Le Pen has vowed to fight the ruling and said that she would not allow the French election to be “stolen” by the judiciary.

In a press conference on Tuesday morning, she said that her party “will not let this happen” and will defend the rights of the French people, who she said “have the right to vote for whoever they wish.”

“The system took out the nuclear bomb. If they use such a powerful weapon against us, it’s because we’re about to win the elections… We will not let the French have the presidential election stolen. We will use all the means at our disposal to allow the French to choose their future leaders, and we will win, because truth and justice must win.”

Le Pen noted that even longstanding political opponents have criticised the ruling, including far-left La France Insoumise leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who said on Monday that “the decision to dismiss an elected official should go to the people” and warned that stripping Le Pen of the presumption of innocence during the appeal process “wouldn’t be just”.

The leader of the centrist Les Républicains in the National Assembly parliament, Laurent Wauquiez, was also critical of the ban on his political opponent, saying: “It is not healthy that in a democracy an elected official is prohibited from running in an election. Political debates must be decided at the ballot box; it is the French who must decide. This decision will have a very heavy weight on the functioning of our democracy. This is probably not the path we should have taken.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who also has previously been at odds with Le Pen, said: “I do not know the merits of the accusations against Marine Le Pen, nor the reasons for such a strong decision… But I think that no one with democracy at heart can rejoice in a sentence that hits the leader of a major party and deprives millions of citizens of representation.” Meanwhile, Meloni deputy Matteo Salvini, described the ruling against Le Pen as an “act of war” from Brussels against the rising populist movement in Europe.

U.S. President Donald Trump also commented on the ruling from the Oval Office, describing it as a “big deal.”

“She was banned for running for five years, and she’s the leading candidate. That sounds like this country,” Trump quipped, referring to lawfare attempts to prevent his recent election.

While Le Pen acknowledged that the path to the Elysee Palace for her is now “narrow”, given that the appeal must be completed before the 2027 election, she said that she will push forward and that the ruling “in no way” means the end of her political career. Despite the ruling, the National Rally leader can remain in her seat in the National Assembly, giving her a large platform to wage the fight against the judiciary.

Sitting alongside her on during Tuesday’s press conference, Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s longstanding right-hand man and eventual successor, said: “The duty of the National Rally, like that of all patriotic voters, is to be united and mobilized, alongside the woman whose only crime is to have found herself in a position to win the presidential election. This is not the time to give up!”.

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