Marine Le Pen launches Presidential campaign amid cheers, boos after guilty verdict

Soon after the French court eases election ban, Marine Le Pen's announced that she will run the upcoming presidential election, drawing French politics into uncharted territory.

French far-right leader was greeted by cheers and boos on Wednesday as she launched her presidential campaign in western France, a day after an appeals court enabled her to run despite confirming her conviction for embezzling EU funds.

Le Pen aggressively launched her campaign website and declared on prime-time television, "Tonight, I am a candidate... The French will have the last word."

Her team had also launched a campaign website with a picture of her on stage opening her arms out wide, with the slogan: "For France, Revival."

As she shook hands in the street market of the small town of La Fleche in the Loire Valley, some jeered "Give the money back!" and "Go to jail!" while others chanted "Marine, President!" - a sign of the tensions that may lie ahead.

This comes as the Paris appeals court on Tuesday shortened Le Pen's ban on running for office, even as it upheld her March 2025 conviction for misusing European Parliament funds to pay party staff.

Officials at France’s highest court, the Cour de Cassation, have previously said that they would aim to deliver their ruling in early 2027, before the election.

If they confirm Tuesday's judgment, Le Pen may have to wear an electronic tag for the last weeks or months of her campaign.

57 years old has already run for president three times but now finds her anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) leading opinion polls, seized her opportunity for another attempt at becoming modern France's first far-right president.

Marine Le Pen is a French lawyer and politician, who served as the president of the far-right National Rally (RN) party and had a long-standing ambition to run for the French presidency in 2027.

The RN had already started to prepare for her protégé, 30-year-old Jordan Bardella, to be its candidate Pen now says if she makes it to the Elysee Palace, he will be her prime minister.

She told reporters this meant "the revival of education, the revival of the justice system, the revival of security for our fellow citizens, the revival of control over our borders, and the revival of our sovereignty"