Le Pen: No presidential campaign with ankle shackles

 

TT

 

Published 11:37

  

Far-right politician Marine Le Pen in court in February. Photo: Michel Euler/AP/TT

Marine Le Pen will not run in the 2027 presidential election if she is forced to wear ankle shackles, she tells French LCI.

The verdict against the far-right politician will be handed down on Tuesday after she appealed last year's verdict for fraud with EU funds. She was sentenced to four years in prison. At the same time, she was banned from running for office for five years.

If the conviction is confirmed on Tuesday, Le Pen could be banned from holding elected office, or sentenced to wearing ankle shackles.

- If I can be a candidate, I will be a candidate, provided I can campaign, she says.

- If I am allowed to be a candidate but in practice prevented from campaigning freely, you understand that would not be possible.

If Le Pen is allowed to run, she is seen as a top candidate to succeed incumbent President Emmanuel Macron.