“I’m not looking for a consolation prize,” Le Pen told Le Parisien newspaper.

The RN leader is the political successor to the controversial National Front founded by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, although she has distanced herself from some of her father’s stances, without renouncing her anti-immigrant speech.

The 57-year-old parliamentarian was sentenced, in March 2025, to four years in prison without incarceration and five years of political disqualification, after being found guilty, along with several party members, of misappropriating public funds. The scheme involved a fraud that embezzled money intended for assistants to members of the European Parliament between 2004 and 2016.

Le Pen awaits her appeal’s outcome in July, a judicial decision that will determine whether or not she can run in the presidential elections in 2027.

She insisted that if the courts allow it, she will be the National Rally (RN) candidate in an election where she already lost the battle for the Elysee Palace in 2017 and 2022, in both cases in the runoff against President Emmanuel Macron.

Given the uncertainty surrounding the conviction, RN President Jordan Bardella would be the party’s representative in the presidential elections if the courts rule against his political mentor.

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