France's far-right leader Le Pen asks protégé Bardella to prepare for 2027 presidential run
France 's far-right leader Marine Le Pen has asked her top lieutenant Jordan Bardella, 29, to prepare for a run in the 2027 presidential elections after her conviction for embezzlement, she said in an interview published Wednesday.
Le Pen, the longtime standard bearer of the French far right, suffered a stunning blow in March when a French court convicted her and other party officials over an EU parliament fake jobs scam.
The ruling, which Le Pen has appealed, banned her from standing for office for five years, which would scupper her ambition of taking part in the 2027 vote, in which President Emmanuel Macron cannot stand because of term limits.
Le Pen has denounced her conviction as a "political decision" and a "witch hunt".
Bardella, Le Pen's protégé who has since been named leader of the National Rally (RN) party, is widely seen as her heir apparent.
"I have accepted the possibility that I may be unable to run. Jordan has accepted the possibility that he may have to take up the torch," Le Pen told French far-right weekly Valeurs Actuelles.
A Paris appeals court could reach a decision in the embezzlement ruling in summer 2026, which means Le Pen could still run if her conviction is overturned or the sentence amended.
"Until then, I will continue to fight," Le Pen told the magazine.
"Of course, the situation is not ideal. But what else do you suggest? That I commit suicide before I'm murdered?" she said.
She also said the anger of French voters should not be underestimated if she were barred from running, saying such a scenario could render the elections illegitimate.
"Many French people, regardless of their political convictions, would then understand that the rules of the game have been manipulated," Le Pen said.
Speaking to French daily Le Parisien in May, Bardella gave the clearest indication yet that he would be the RN candidate for president if Le Pen were unable to stand.
"There is no ambiguity about the fact that Marine Le Pen is my candidate, but that if she was prevented from running tomorrow, I think I can tell you that I would be her candidate," he told the newspaper.
"I cannot be clearer than that," Bardella said, emphasising "the overriding necessity to be united".
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Le Pen had previously played down a potential candidacy for Bardella, saying in April that he would be the party's candidate "if she were hit by a truck".
The contours of the 2027 presidential election remain largely unclear, with only the centre-right former prime minister Edouard Philippe the main player to clearly state he will stand to replace Macron.
Le Pen scored her best-ever result in the 2022 presidential vote, surpassing both left-wing groupings and the conservative right-wing party.
But in March she was handed a five-year ban on running for office after being convicted of creating fake jobs at the EU parliament to channel funds to her party to employ people in France.
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