Marine Le Pen stated she would not run in the 2027 presidential election if required to wear an electronic bracelet following her first-instance conviction. The Rassemblement national (RN) leader awaits the Paris appeal court's decision on July 7 in the case of RN European parliamentary assistants. She shared this view in a BFM-TV interview on February 25.
Marine Le Pen, head of the RN deputies, stated in a BFM-TV interview on February 25 that she would not seek the presidency in 2027 if ordered to wear an electronic bracelet. In the first-instance ruling on the RN European parliamentary assistants case, she received two years of this measure and five years of ineligibility with provisional execution; the appeal verdict is set for July 7.
“One cannot campaign under these conditions,” she explained, adding: “Finally, can you campaign without going in the evening to meet your voters at rallies? It would be another way to obviously prevent me from being a candidate in 2027.” She noted that her candidacy now rests with three judges, who will decide if “the millions of French people who want to vote for me can do so or not.”
If barred, she would step aside for Jordan Bardella, the RN president, without acting as his guardian. “Jordan Bardella has never been placed under my tutelage. He never will be. He is a free, convinced man,” she emphasized. She ruled out joining a potential Bardella government, saying he would select his own prime minister.
Regarding the March municipal elections, Le Pen dismissed any withdrawal of RN candidates to block La France insoumise (LFI), opposing Aurore Bergé's call. “Withdrawing our lists is a violation of the trust voters placed in you,” she said.
She accused Jean-Luc Mélenchon of pursuing a “strategy of the worst” and rhetoric that legitimizes violence, amid the death of a far-right activist in Lyon. The RN maintains “no structural links” with ultraright groups, she claimed, recalling expelling such elements from the Front national. Meanwhile, RN deputy Lisette Pollet dismissed her assistant Vincent Claudin over online racist, homophobic, and antisemitic messages; he had ties to the Lyon Populaire group, targeted for dissolution.