A day after an appeals court allowed her to run despite confirming her conviction for embezzling millions of euros in EU public funding, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was met with applause and jeers on Wednesday as she began her presidential campaign in western France.
Some jeered, “Give the money back!” and “Go to jail!” as she shook hands in the street market of the little town of La Flèche in the Loire Valley, while others yelled, “Marine, President!”—a hint of potential tensions.
She was cleared to run for office after being convicted once more on appeal on Tuesday for a fictitious European Parliament employment scam. However, she stated that she will take the issue to France’s highest court, which would spare her from having to wear an ankle monitor while on the campaign trail.
“The court has restored my eligibility.” The appeals court had mandated that she wear an electronic ankle tag for a year, which would have obliged her to go home every night. “You have to take risks to win,” Le Pen continued. “I am innocent, and I am pursuing an appeal to the Court of Cassation to prove my innocence.”
In the upcoming elections, the 57-year-old will compete for president a fourth time, which her anti-immigrant party sees as its best opportunity to seize power.
“I am not going to spend the presidential campaign giving you legal studies,” she declared, dismissing criticism of her candidacy and the possibility that the Court of Cassation may reject her appeal before the vote.
Jordan Bardella, a 30-year-old lieutenant who had been waiting in the wings in case Le Pen was prohibited from running, accompanied her on the trail. If she wins, he is predicted to be her prime minister.
Bardella, who is very well-liked on the right, expressed “neither relief nor disappointment” about not becoming his party’s nominee.
He declared that they would “continue to work hand in hand” and that he was “delighted” that Le Pen was running.
