Police have raided the headquarters of the far-right National Rally, seizing documents and accounting records as part of a sweeping inquiry into alleged illegal campaign financing.
Prosecutors said they are investigating allegations of illegal financing of longtime party leader Marine Le Pen’s 2022 presidential bid, and the party's European Parliament and French parliamentary campaigns.
The anti-immigration National Rally (RN) is the biggest single party in France's lower house of parliament.
Jordan Bardella, 29, who took over the RN presidency in 2022, said that police seized “all files relating to the party’s recent regional, presidential, legislative, and European campaigns – in other words, all of its electoral activity".
Bardella slammed the raid in a message on X. “This spectacular and unprecedented operation is clearly part of a new harassment operation. It is a serious attack on pluralism and democratic change,” he said.
France's Le Pen asks Bardella to prepare for 2027 presidential bid
Fresh blow
The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed in a statement that searches were carried out at the RN's headquarters, as well as at the head offices of several unnamed companies and at the homes of those companies' executives.
The searches were prompted by a judicial inquiry opened a year ago into a raft of allegations, including fraud, money laundering and forgery.
The inquiry is also investigating allegations thay the RN overbilled for services or billed for fictitious services in order to artifically increase the amount of state aid provided to the party for its electoral campaigns.
The alleged violations were related to the financing of campaigns during the 2022 presidential, 2022 legislative and 2024 European campaigns, the office said, adding that no person or legal entity has been charged in the probe and the investigation is still ongoing.
In a separate probe, EU financial prosecutors said Tuesday they had opened an investigation into alleged misuse of €4.3 million by Identity and Democracy – a now-defunct far-right European Parliament bloc that included the RN.
Wednesday's raid represents a fresh blow for the far-right party after Le Pen was convicted in March of embezzling EU funds and barred from running in the 2027 presidential election.
She aims to get her conviction overturned so that she can run for president for the fourth time. Bardella has said he will run if she cannot.
(with newswires)
