France's Le Pen: I'm out of the running for the 2027 race, but will fight on

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said on Monday that a court's decision to bar her from office for misuse of European funds ruled her out of the 2027 presidential election, adding she had no confidence in an appeal being heard before the vote.

"Let's be clear, I am eliminated but in reality its millions of French people whose voices have been eliminated," Le Pen told broadcaster TF1 in an interview.

Le Pen added that if she did successfully overturn Monday's ruling in time, she would run for president.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was banned from running for public office for five years after being convicted on Monday of embezzlement, a political watershed that ruled her out of the 2027 presidential race unless she can win an appeal.

The French court's ruling was a catastrophic setback for Le Pen, the National Rally (RN) party chief who has long been one of the most prominent figures in the European far right and who has been the front-runner in opinion polls for the 2027 contest.

The judge who convicted Le Pen of misappropriating European Union funds also gave her a four-year prison sentence - two years of which are suspended and two years to be served under home detention. She received a 100,000-euro ($108,200) fine.

Le Pen, 56, will appeal, her lawyer said, and neither the prison sentence nor the fine will be applied until her appeals are exhausted. But the five-year ban from running for office starts immediately, via a so-called "provisional execution" measure requested by prosecutors.

Le Pen's right-hand man, RN president Jordan Bardella, said: "Today it is not only Marine Le Pen who was unjustly convicted: It was French democracy that was killed".

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