PARIS, July 7 (Reuters): French far-right leader Marine Le Pen ​announced on Tuesday that she will run for president in 2027, after an appeals court shortened her ban on running for office, as it upheld her conviction for embezzling EU funds to pay party staff.

She also said she would appeal the conviction.

Le Pen immediately launched her campaign website and urged voters to back her, creating an unprecedented situation in France, with a lead candidate heading to the ballot after a guilty verdict for a public-funds-related offence.

"Tonight, I am a candidate ​in the presidential election," Le Pen said in a prime-time interview on TF1 TV, hours after the ruling. "The French will have the ​last word."

Le Pen, who is leading in opinion polls, said she was taking Tuesday's judgement to the country's highest ⁠court, the Cour de Cassation, which has the effect of suspending the ruling, including its requirement that she wear an electronic ankle tag. She reaffirmed ​that she had done nothing wrong.

The 57-year-old's presidential hopes had been in limbo since March 2025, when she received a five-year electoral ban for using money ​from the European Parliament to pay wages for staff at her anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) party in France. The RN had started preparing for the possibility that Le Pen's 30-year-old protege, Jordan Bardella, would be its candidate.