French hard-right leader Marine Le Pen has announced she will stand in the 2027 presidential election and appeal against an embezzlement conviction that requires her to wear an electronic tag for a year. Speaking in a primetime television interview, the National Rally leader insisted on her innocence and vowed to pursue every legal avenue, ending months of speculation that she might hand the candidacy to the party's 30-year-old president, Jordan Bardella. Her decision is a significant political gamble that shapes the race less than 10 months before the first round of voting.

Hours before her announcement, a Paris appeal court found her guilty of misusing €2.8m (£2.4m) in EU funds through a fake jobs scheme between 2004 and 2016, upholding an earlier ruling but allowing her to stand while tagged. She will now take her case to the Court of Cassation, France's top civil court, which is expected to take several months to rule; prosecutors are also appealing. If the verdict is confirmed, Le Pen could be forced to wear a tag during the campaign's crucial period. She said that, if elected, she would serve as president with Bardella as prime minister.