Sawt Falasteen - France's Le Pen to announce if running for president with ankle tag

The Paris appeals court found the three-time presidential hopeful from the anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party guilty over a fake jobs scam at the European Parliament.

It banned her from office for 15 months and sentenced her to one year to be served with an electronic tag, throwing into doubt her candidacy in what is viewed as her party's best ever chance to win the Elysee.

A lower court in March last year had initially sentenced her to a five-year ban from public office, quashing her ambitions to succeed outgoing centrist President Emmanuel Macron in next year's polls.

Backdated to March 2025, the new ban from office is thought to have expired this year, clearing the way in principle for Le Pen to run in polls set for April and May 2027.

But she has said she may not run if wearing a tag prevents her from campaigning.

"When you're a presidential candidate, you need to be completely free to move around," she said last week in a televised interview.

"I can't depend on a magistrate to allow me to go to a rally."

Le Pen could hand the candidacy to her 30-year-old lieutenant, RN party leader Jordan Bardella.

Or she could change her mind.

Magistrates said a judge could reduce the period she has to wear an ankle tag by six months, allowing her to campaign unhindered from early next year.

She was expected to speak later Tuesday during the evening news from 8:00 pm (1800 GMT).

- 'So what?' -

Macron, visiting Syria on Tuesday, said he would not comment.

"What is healthy for democracy is that the president of the republic does not comment on court decisions," he said in Damascus.

Le Pen's lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut said he was "partially" happy with the verdict.

"We note a considerable shift in the sentences, particularly with regards to the ban from office, which for us is an extremely important point," he said.

In the northern town of Henin-Beaumont, an RN stronghold, 57-year-old plasterer Pierre Pagniez said he expected Le Pen to run.

"They need to stop trying to trip her up," he said, adding he preferred the three-time presidential candidate to the much less experienced Bardella.

"So what if she runs her campaign wearing an ankle monitor?"

Socialist party leader Olivier Faure was among leftists who said Le Pen should not run next year, as any candidate should be "exemplary".

"Le Pen, now, is alone with her conscience," he said.

Recent opinion polls have largely suggested the far right will lead in the first round of next year's vote, but are divided on the outcome of the second round.

Many have shown slightly better results for Bardella than Le Pen, but their adversaries have inferred the veteran politician would be a fiercer opponent.

An opinion poll in May suggested Le Pen could win the runoffs next year if she competes.

The Harris Interactive Toluna survey of more than 1,700 registered voters projected her winning, against hard-left figurehead Jean-Luc Melenchon as well as centrist former prime ministers Gabriel Attal and Edouard Philippe.

Other polls have, however, suggested Philippe -- who is also courting right-wing voters -- could win a runoff against the far right.

- 'Witch hunt' -

The first trial found Le Pen -- along with 24 former European lawmakers, assistants and accountants, as well as the party itself -- guilty of operating a system from 2004 to 2016 to use European Parliament funds to employ RN staff in France.

Le Pen claimed her party was the victim of a "witch hunt", and the judges received death threats.

Le Pen, the party and 10 others appealed.

During the appeal trial, she denied that the RN had a system to embezzle European Parliament funds, and has said her party acted in "complete good faith".

But prosecutors allege that after she took over the party leadership in 2011 she "professionalised" a system to divert EU funds that was first introduced haphazardly by her late father, party co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen.

They had demanded the court maintain a five-year ban and sought a four-year term, with three years suspended.

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G.AbuHamad--SF-PST