{"id":7741,"date":"2026-07-08T16:35:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/08\/far-right-leader-le-pen-starts-campaign-faces-mixed-reactions-in-france\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T16:35:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:35:43","slug":"far-right-leader-le-pen-starts-campaign-faces-mixed-reactions-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/08\/far-right-leader-le-pen-starts-campaign-faces-mixed-reactions-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Far-right leader Le Pen starts campaign, faces mixed reactions in France"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>A court ruling has allowed Le Pen to campaign despite embezzlement conviction, sparking heated debates across France.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has launched her presidential campaign in western France, the day after <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/7\/french-far-right-leader-le-pen-says-will-run-in-2027-presidential-election\">an appeals court\u00a0enabled her to run<\/a> despite confirming her conviction for embezzling European Union funds to pay party staff.<\/p>\n<p>The mood was mixed on Wednesday as she shook hands in the street market of the small town of La Fleche in the Loire Valley. \u00a0Some jeered: \u201cGive the money back!\u201d and \u201cGo to jail!\u201d, while others chanted \u201cMarine, president!\u201d \u2013 a sign of the tensions that may lie ahead.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2026\/3\/11\/europes-hard-right-fractures-over-us-israel-war-on-iran\">Europe\u2019s hard right fractures over US-Israel war on Iran<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2026\/3\/24\/after-setbacks-across-europe-is-the-populist-far-right-losing-ground\">Is the tide turning on Europe\u2019s hard-right populists?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/4\/28\/paris-and-lyon-readied-as-nice-mayor-opposes-winter-olympic-ice-hockey-plan\">Paris and Lyon prepare as Nice mayor opposes 2030 Olympics ice hockey venue<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Le Pen, who at 57 has already run for president three times and is leading opinion polls for next year\u2019s \u2060election, has seized her opportunity for another attempt to become modern France\u2019s first far-right president, hoping voters will overlook her legal woes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe aim of our campaign is to bring about France\u2019s revival,\u201d she said in La Fleche, pledging to revive sovereignty, justice, security and education. Hours earlier, her team had launched a campaign website with a picture of her holding out her arms, with the slogan: \u201cFor France, Revival.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Le Pen said La Fleche, a longtime left-wing bastion that in March elected a 25-year-old mayor from her anti-immigrant National Rally (RN), was symbolic of the party\u2019s growing reach. Asked repeatedly about Tuesday\u2019s verdict, she sounded irritated and told reporters, \u201cI\u2019m not going to spend my whole campaign analysing legal matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, supporters clamoured for selfies, which she readily gave.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMarine, you\u2019re the best!\u201d said one.<\/p>\n<p>The appeals court ordered Le Pen to wear an electronic ankle tag for a year that would have required her to return home from the campaign trail every night. Her announcement of \u200ca final \u2060appeal to France\u2019s highest court, the Cour de Cassation, had the effect of putting that order on hold.<\/p>\n<p>The court said on Wednesday that it could rule on Le Pen\u2019s appeal by early April 2027, before the two rounds of the election on April 18 and May 2, but that procedural questions could shift the \u2060timing. If it upholds Tuesday\u2019s judgment early enough for its ruling to come into force, Le Pen might have to wear an electronic tag for the last weeks or days of her campaign.<\/p>\n<p>If Le Pen were elected president before it rules, she would in any case not have to comply with the verdict until her term expires.<\/p>\n<p>The RN had already started to prepare for the possibility that Le Pen\u2019s protege, 30-year-old Jordan Bardella, would be its candidate for president. Le Pen\u2019s decision to stand set back Bardella\u2019s own ambitions to run immediately for the highest office, although Le Pen says if she makes it to the Elysee Palace, he will be her prime minister.<\/p>\n<p>Looking earnest as he stood next to a beaming Le Pen in La Fleche, he said he was very happy to be kicking off her campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A court ruling has allowed Le Pen to campaign despite embezzlement conviction, sparking heated debates across France. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has launched her presidential campaign in western France, the day after an appeals court\u00a0enabled her to run despite confirming her conviction for embezzling European Union funds to pay party staff. The mood was &#8230; <a title=\"Far-right leader Le Pen starts campaign, faces mixed reactions in France\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/08\/far-right-leader-le-pen-starts-campaign-faces-mixed-reactions-in-france\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Far-right leader Le Pen starts campaign, faces mixed reactions in France\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}