Marine Le Pen Declares Presidential Bid Despite Electronic Tag Sentence for Fund Misuse

[Anchor]

Marine Le Pen, a prominent figure in French far-right politics, has officially announced her candidacy for next year's presidential election. Although she received a sentence of one year of house arrest with an electronic monitoring tag in a second-instance ruling yesterday (July 7), she remains a leading contender.

Kwon Yeongin reports from Paris.

[Reporter]

Marine Le Pen, leader of the French far-right party National Rally, has officially declared that she will run in the French presidential election next spring.

Le Pen had been on trial for the alleged misappropriation of 2.8 million euros, approximately 5 billion Korean won, in European Parliament funds for her party's personnel expenses over the past 11 years. In the second-instance ruling held yesterday, she was sentenced to three years in prison, with two years suspended.

The court specifically included a condition that she must serve one year under house arrest while wearing an electronic monitoring tag.

Immediately following the verdict, many analysts suggested that it would be difficult for a candidate from France's top-polling party to conduct a campaign while under house arrest with an electronic tag.

However, Le Pen appeared on French television news to declare that she would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court and proceed with her presidential bid.

She argued that the enforcement of the electronic tag and detention measures would be suspended during the appeal process, asserting that her campaign would face no issues.

Notably, the period of ineligibility for public office, which was five years in the first-instance ruling, was reduced to 45 months in the second-instance ruling, opening a path for her to run in next year's election.

[Marine Le Pen / Leader of the French National Rally: The scenario where I would be unable to run in the 2027 presidential election no longer exists. If that were not the case, I would not be here this evening telling you that I am a candidate for the presidential election.]

Le Pen, who has run for president three times as a representative of the far-right bloc but failed to win, is currently considered the top contender for the next presidency, bolstered by the recent expansion of far-right support.

With Le Pen officially confirming her candidacy despite the legal risks that had cast doubt on her participation, the French presidential race, now nine months away, is expected to intensify further.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.