By Antony Paone and Ingrid Melander
LA FLECHE, France, July 8 (Reuters) – French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was greeted by cheers and boos on Wednesday as she launched her presidential campaign in western France, the day after an appeals court enabled her to run despite confirming her conviction for embezzling EU funds.
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.
The Paris appeals court on Tuesday shortened Le Pen’s ban on running for office, while upholding her March 2025 conviction for misusing European Parliament funds to pay party staff.
Le Pen, who at 57 has already run for president three times and is leading opinion polls for next year’s election, seized her opportunity for another attempt at becoming modern France’s first far-right president.
LE PEN PROMISES FRENCH ‘REVIVAL’
While other parties said it was shameful to run despite her conviction, Le Pen appears to be betting that voters will overlook her legal woes as U.S. voters did for Donald Trump.
“The aim of our campaign is to bring about France’s revival,” she said in La Fleche, speaking of reviving sovereignty, justice, security and education. Hours earlier, her team had launched a campaign website with a picture of her holding out her arms, with the slogan: “For France, Revival.”
She said La Fleche, a long-time left-wing bastion that in March elected a 25-year-old mayor from her anti-immigrant National Rally (RN), was symbolic of the party’s growing reach.
Asked repeatedly about Tuesday’s verdict, she sounded irritated and told reporters: “I’m not going to spend my whole campaign analysing legal matters.”
Meanwhile, supporters clamoured for selfies, which she readily gave. “Marine, you’re the best!” said one.
The appeals court ordered Le Pen to wear an electronic ankle tag for a year that would have required her to return home from the campaign trail every night. Her announcement of a final appeal to France’s highest court had the effect of putting that order on hold.
The RN had already started to prepare for the possibility that her protégé, 30-year-old Jordan Bardella, would be its candidate for president.
Le Pen’s decision to stand set back Bardella’s own ambitions to run immediately for the highest office, although Le Pen says if she makes it to the Elysee Palace, he will be her prime minister. Looking earnest as he stood next to a beaming Le Pen in La Fleche, he said he was very happy to be kicking off her campaign.
LE PEN LIKELY TO REACH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RUNOFF
Adélaïde Zulfikarpasic, from BVA pollsters, said she expected Le Pen to make it to the second round runoff of the election on May 2 despite her guilty verdict, thanks to a loyal voter base.
“There is a degree of ambivalence among French voters: when asked which qualities they most want in a president, they point to honesty and probity. In practice, however, they tend to be less demanding.”
But Zulfikarpasic said the key question for Le Pen was whether she could expand her electoral base, and that the guilty verdict might make this more challenging.
Officials at France’s highest court, the Cour de Cassation, have previously said 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.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, Dominique Vidalon, Inti Landauro in Paris, Antony Paone and Nicolas Coupe in La Fleche; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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