Marine Le Pen Could Campaign For French Presidency Wearing An Ankle Monitor

Marine Le Pen could remain in contention for France’s presidency despite being ordered to serve one year under house arrest with an electronic monitor.

Marine Le Pen could find herself in an extraordinary position ahead of France’s next presidential election: legally able to pursue a bid for the country’s highest office, yet potentially campaigning with an electronic monitor strapped to her ankle. A Paris appeals court on Tuesday upheld the far-right leader’s conviction for embezzlement and fined her €100,000, but reduced both her prison sentence and the period for which she is barred from elected office. The ruling has kept a route to the presidency open. It has also created an immediate practical problem for Le Pen.

The court reduced Le Pen’s prison sentence from four years to three years, with two years suspended. The remaining year is to be served under house arrest with electronic monitoring, meaning the 57-year-old will have to wear an ankle monitor and remain at a designated location outside hours authorised by the judiciary. Her five-year ban on elected office was also cut to 45 months, with two-thirds of that period suspended.

Under French law, electronic home detention requires a convicted person to wear an ankle monitor while serving a sentence outside prison. The individual cannot simply leave home at will; a court or the judge responsible for enforcing the sentence determines the designated residence and the hours during which movement is permitted. Leaving outside those authorised periods can create further legal consequences.

For Le Pen, the exact restrictions are not yet known. A specialist sentence enforcement judge is expected to decide in the coming weeks or months where she will serve the sentence and what hours she can spend outside the residence. That schedule could determine whether she is realistically able to travel, attend political events and conduct a national presidential campaign.

The problem is one Le Pen herself identified before the appeals court delivered its ruling. “If I can be a candidate, I will be a candidate, provided that I am able to campaign,” she told French broadcaster LCI last week. Being permitted to stand while effectively unable to campaign freely, she argued, would make a presidential run difficult.

Technically, yes. An electronic monitor does not automatically make political campaigning impossible, and the appeals court’s decision has left open a path for Le Pen to seek the presidency. France is scheduled to hold the first round of its next presidential election on April 18, followed by a run-off on May 2.

The difficulty lies in the day-to-day realities of a national campaign. “I can’t be dependent on a judge to authorize me to go hold a campaign rally … or to visit a market,” Le Pen said when asked whether electronic monitoring would be the principal obstacle to her candidacy. Her comments underline the gap between being legally eligible to contest an election and having sufficient freedom of movement to campaign across France.

Céline Bertetto, president of France’s national association of sentence enforcement judges, said the appeals court had chosen to make a presidential bid possible. “The appeals court has decided to make a (presidential) bid possible, so the decision must be respected,” she said.

There is another factor. French law allows convicted persons serving adjusted sentences to become eligible for reductions of up to six months per year, while conditional release may also be possible. Bertetto noted that a one-year sentence could potentially be reduced by six months, although Le Pen would have to comply with her authorised movement hours and pay the criminal fine.

Much will depend on when the electronic monitoring period actually begins. The fitting process could take several months, and any subsequent sentence reduction could leave Le Pen free of the monitor during the final stages of the presidential campaign. At present, however, there is no fixed timetable for when the device will be fitted.

France’s use of electronic monitoring is not unusual. The measure is widely used as an alternative to incarceration, partly against the backdrop of persistent prison overcrowding and deteriorating detention conditions identified by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture. It allows a custodial sentence to be enforced without placing another inmate inside an already strained prison system.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy also wore an electronic monitor after receiving a one-year prison sentence in a corruption case. French media reported that Sarkozy was generally permitted to leave his home between 8 am and 8 pm, with longer hours on certain days so he could attend a separate trial. He was granted conditional release and removed the electronic tag after just over three months.

Le Pen left the Paris courthouse without speaking immediately after Tuesday’s ruling. The political question surrounding her has nevertheless sharpened: the court has not completely shut the door on a presidential campaign, but an electronic monitor and judge-approved movement schedule could decide whether she believes there is any point in walking through it.