Marine Le Pen has revived her presidential campaign after an appeals court ruled she could run in next year’s election, unveiling posters depicting her as a Jesus-like figure with outstretched arms beneath the slogan: “A renaissance for France.”
The imagery underscored Le Pen’s political resurrection after she narrowly on Tuesday escaped being banned from the contest when judges upheld her conviction for embezzling millions of euros from the European parliament. They softened the sentence imposed by a lower court, leaving her eligible to run.
A smiling Le Pen was back on the campaign trail on Wednesday, posing for selfies and greeting supporters at a market in the Loire Valley. She was accompanied by Jordan Bardella, her 30-year-old protégé, who had been preparing to stand in her place had she been barred from running.
Pour la France, la Renaissance.
Rejoignez-nous et soutenez notre campagne présidentielle qui commence sur : https://t.co/bwWYcTvOSR pic.twitter.com/ZnNxAjvOA1
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) July 7, 2026
“It’s not the time to talk about legal analysis anymore. We are here together to kick off the presidential campaign,” she told reporters with Bardella standing next to her in an effort to show unity and loyalty.
Le Pen’s rivals were quick to argue that the ruling did not absolve her of wrongdoing. Former prime ministers Édouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal accused her of hypocrisy, noting that she had long railed against corruption among France’s political elite.
“Listening to Marine Le Pen, I thought she had the same instincts and rhetoric as Donald Trump,” Attal said.
Privately, however, rival campaigns acknowledged Le Pen remained their toughest opponent. Just as the US president managed to withstand multiple criminal cases to retake the White House, Le Pen should not be counted out, they said. “Bardella would have been easier for us,” admitted one strategist.
“She is presenting herself as a modern-day Joan of Arc! It’s absurd but effective,” grumbled another staff member, referring to the 15th-century warrior saint who fought for France and was persecuted by establishment authorities.
With Le Pen’s candidacy settled, the race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron can begin in earnest. Although dozens of candidates remain, the field is expected to narrow well before the first round on April 18.
The term “renaissance” in her campaign materials was an intentional callback to the name of Macron’s political party, said one of Le Pen’s advisers, and intended to highlight just how failed his decade in power will have been. “It turned out that Macron was not at all a rebirth, but the last gasp of the old system,” said the person.
But her opponents may also soon point out that she is hardly a new figure either, as this will be her fourth presidential bid. Rivals will also use her legal woes to prove that she is unfit to govern.
She, meanwhile, will seek to return the campaign to familiar ground, arguing that her anti-immigration Rassemblement National is the only party prepared to defend ordinary French people against a discredited political elite.
She and Bardella have also returned to their preferred division of labour: Le Pen as presidential candidate, Bardella as her choice for prime minister.
The next test will be whether Tuesday’s ruling changes voter attitudes. Polls conducted in previous weeks consistently showed her comfortably reaching the run-off, but losing to a centrist opponent in second-round match-ups.
No candidate has ever run for president with such a criminal conviction, although other high-profile politicians have been found guilty of corruption after their time in office, including former president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Under French law, the presumption of innocence applies until all appeals have been exhausted, allowing Le Pen to continue to maintain her innocence despite two court rulings finding her guilty of embezzlement.
“My hands are clean today,” she said, announcing an appeal to the Court of cassation, France’s highest court for civil and criminal matters. Until it rules, enforcement of her sentence — including a year of house arrest with an electronic ankle bracelet — is suspended.
“The appeal is a very canny pirouette that will help her on the campaign trail,” said author and political analyst Chloé Morin. “Legal troubles matter less to French voters today because they no longer trust either the judicial system or the political class.”
Voters, she added, were more interested in a president who understood their concerns and would shake up the status quo than one with “a spotless record”.
But the Cour de cassation appeal also carries risks for Le Pen: if they rule quickly to uphold the conviction, it would raise the prospect of her wearing an electronic ankle bracelet in the middle of the campaign.
Such a scenario would inject an extraordinary degree of uncertainty into the race. “No pollster can tell you what effect that would have on the election,” said Brice Teinturier, deputy chief executive of Ipsos.
Cassation decisions often take a year or two, so the RN is betting that it will not be rendered before the election. On Wednesday, the court said that it could deliver before April but that the timetable would depend on “procedural developments”.
Le Pen has repeatedly shown an ability to rebound from political setbacks. She recovered from her bruising 2017 defeat to Macron and years of legal scrutiny without denting her popularity.
Campaigning in the Loire Valley, she projected confidence. “Our campaign will be all about delivering a rebirth for France: its schools, justice system, the security of our fellow citizens, and the respect of our borders and sovereignty.”
A short distance away, protesters held signs reading “Give back the money” and “Marine to jail”.
