Paris court clears way for Marine Le Pen presidential election run but under conditions she rejects – Europe live

Just a reminder that we are expecting to hear from Marine Le Pen on her next steps only later tonight, as she says a prime time TV interview scheduled for ۸pm Paris time (۷pm UK).

Meanwhile, let’s go back to Paris and bring you some of the first reactions to today’s decision in Le Pen’s case, via Reuters.

European Parliament’s lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve:

“What is crucial for us, and what we have been saying for years, is that they have embezzled and ‌stolen public money, European taxpayers’ money, and indeed French citizens’ money as well.

We have been saying this for years, and it has now been confirmed for the second time, first by the court and today by the Court of Appeal.”

Manon Aubry of the France Unbowed party and its European Parliament group leader:

“The RN entered politics with the slogan ‘heads held high, hands clean’; they are leaving it with ‘heads bowed, hands dirty’.

Whether it is Marine Le Pen or Jordan Bardella, the RN’s candidate, they are equally adept ‌at misappropriating public funds. Marine Le Pen, moreover, is wearing an electronic tag.”

Marine Tondelier, the leader of France’s Green party:

“Contrary to what the RN has been shouting for years, there is therefore no judicial conspiracy. One could even say that she has benefited from great leniency … In a normal world ‌where the RN had even the slightest shred of morality, she would step down from running herself. Because one cannot decently stand for election after having ​been convicted in this way for misappropriating public funds, even if one remains eligible.”

Left-wing MP François Ruffin from the Debout! party:

“The very fact that it even crosses our minds that Marine Le Pen might campaign whilst wearing an electronic tag is a sign that corruption is accepted in our country.”

In other comments on Europe, Trump also said he was “very disappointed” with Nato over Iran, and even suggested he wouldn’t be taking part in the summit if it wasn’t in Turkey, run by “his friend” Erdoğan.

“We’ve invested trillions of dollars in Nato. Why? To protect European countries and others, Canada, etc. but to protect people, countries from, generally speaking, it used to be the Soviet Union, now it’s Russia, and Russia, and I say that’s fine, but you would think that they’d be very willing to do something to help us, and they really weren’t.”

He pointedly criticised the UK – and the outgoing prime minister, Keir Starmer – and others, like France and Germany for their decision to not help on Iran.

“We didn’t need any help at all. And in a way, I was testing people, I was testing to see whether or not they’d be there, because … we helped them, but I’m not sure that they’d be there for us.

Italy turned us down, and Germany turned us down, and France turned us down, and it’s okay, but you know, why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and they’re not there for us? We’ve always been there for them.”

Our US politics live blog is keeping a close eye on Trump’s activities in Ankara:

All of that is obviously not new from Trump – he keeps repeating all these incendiary lines on Italy, Greenland, removing troops, and immigration regularly – but it shows his attitude ahead of tomorrow’s Nato meeting.

And it’s very much the attitude that European leaders wanted to avoid.

Expect tricky discussions and fireworks in Ankara.

Trump also spoke about Greenland, doubling down on his claim that it should be controlled by the US, not Denmark.

He pointed to US spending on deterring Russia, adding that he US did “not have to spend any money” and “could remove all of our soldiers out of Europe,” because “as you probably noticed, Europe is a very different place than it was ۲۰ years ago” because of “immigration and energy.”

“If they are not careful with those two things, you are not going to have a Europe any more,” he said.

Trump also got asked about his recent criticism of Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni.

He said she is “a nice person,” but their relationships “got bad” and “soured a little bit” after Italy refused to help the US in Iran.

“I think she made a mistake … She wasn’t there for us, and I wasn’t happy about that.”

Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump has been speaking in Ankara as part of his meeting with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Asked about his meeting with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy tomorrow, he went into a long monologue on the state of the war, repeatedly praising Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his conversations with him.

But the bottom line of his point was this:

“I think they both want to make a deal. It’s too bad it took so long, but I think there’s going to be something … going to come out.”

He added:

“They both want to get it settled… I think they are going to, I think we’re going to get it settled hopefully soon.”

He also spoke about the extremely high death toll of the war, and how he wanted to end the war.

France’s Emmanuel Macron has just been asked about his response to the ruling as a joint press conference with Syria’s president Ahmed al-Sharaa.

But he doesn’t take the bait when asked if the ruling is “healthy for democracy.”

He says:

“What is healthy for democracy is that the president of the Republic does not speak about judicial decisions.

Therefore, I will adhere to this principle, especially abroad.”

Details of Le Pen’s tag monitoring to be decided at a later date

Angelique Chrisafis

Paris correspondent
in Paris courtroom

In terms of process, a different judge will consider at a later date the exact workings of any electronic tag or monitoring for Le Pen.

The tag requirement could make any potential presidential campaign politically ⁠and logistically difficult.

Le Pen has now arrived at the RN’s HQ in ۱۶th arrondissement and is now believed to be meeting with Jordan Bardella and their closest aides to decide on the next steps.

For what it’s worth, after leaving the court, Le Pen is now en route to her party’s HQ now, followed by what looks like gazillion of reporters, cameras and photographers on mopeds.

The party’s president and a potential back-up presidential candidate Jordan Bardella is believed to be there, so the pair will no doubt want to discuss their next steps.

Le Pen not expected to comment until her prime time TV interview

Angelique Chrisafis

Paris correspondent
in Paris courtroom

Marine Le Pen and her lawyers are not expected to comment on her next steps until she appears on television news tonight at ۸pm Paris time.