Marine Le Pen formally launched her campaign for the French presidency on Sunday, promising to restore order and national confidence to a country she says is living through mounting economic, social and security crises — and she did it from the city of Joan of Arc, the nationalist heroine she has long claimed as a symbol of French patriotism.
Addressing a cheering crowd in Orléans, the 58-year-old leader of the far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National) cast herself as the candidate of a national "Renaissance." "We are not living through the end of the world but the end of a world, their world," she told her supporters, in a direct attack on the political establishment that has governed France for decades.
"We say: 'Things were good before, they will be better tomorrow!'" she added, promising "zero tolerance" policing and declaring that restoring security was the state's first duty.
A fortress in Orléans
The kickoff rally looked like a campaign built for a country on edge. Thousands of law enforcement officers patrolled the city, municipal buses were requisitioned to transport party activists from the train station, left-wing groups were closely monitored and prevented from demonstrating, and body searches were conducted with unusual zeal.
Le Pen's advisers made no secret of the symbolism. "This proves that when there's a will, there's a way," said Philippe Olivier, a member of the European Parliament and a close adviser to the candidate. "As soon as people are stopped from wandering around dressed like black bloc protesters, there's a lot less chaos."
The timing could hardly be better for her. France has just lived through two consecutive weekends of mass protests over the cost of living and worsening public services, with demonstrations descending into looting and vandalism and more than 1,000 arrests. An opinion poll published on Sunday put Le Pen at 32% to 33.5% of first-round voting intentions — well ahead of hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon on 17% — and surveys suggest she would easily beat him in a runoff.
What Marine Le Pen is promising France
On immigration, Le Pen promised a hard line: restore border controls, automatically expel foreign criminals, and crack down on gangs and drug traffickers. On the economy, she pledged spending restraint, lower business taxes and no further rise in the retirement age. On Europe, she stopped short of advocating a French exit from the European Union but said she would roll back Brussels's influence over French law.
It is her fourth run for the presidency, after 2012, 2017 and 2022 — and the polls say it is her strongest ever. A separate Ipsos survey gives her 34% to 38% in the first round and has her winning the second round against every possible opponent, including Mélenchon by 68% to 32%.
The legal cloud over the frontrunner
Le Pen's bid remains clouded by legal questions. She was convicted in March 2025 of embezzling European Parliament funds, and an appeals court in July confirmed the conviction while ruling she could still run. She has lodged a final appeal with France's highest court, which put an ankle-tag order on hold. That court has said it could rule by early April 2027 — just before the two rounds of voting on April 18 and May 2.
President Emmanuel Macron, who cannot run for a third term, leaves behind a centre in disarray, with no agreed successor and its leading figures divided. Le Pen's message to a France she describes as a "state that is collapsing" is simple: only she can restore order. On Sunday in Orléans, in front of a crowd that cheered her every line, she made clear she intends to spend the next six months proving it.
Fuentes: Reuters, 25 oct 2026; Le Monde, 26 oct 2026; AnewZ, 26 oct 2026; JFeed / Ipsos, 21 oct 2026; LiveMint, 22 oct 2026.