French far-right headquarters searched amid probe into campaign financing

PARIS – On Wednesday morning, the National Rally's headquarters in Paris have been searched, the Paris public prosecutor's office said. This comes only a day after the European Public Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation into allegations of the misuse of EU funds involving the party's former European Parliament group ID. 

“This operation, both spectacular and unprecedented, is clearly part of a new campaign of harassment. It constitutes a serious attack on pluralism and democratic alternation,” wrote National Rally president Jordan Bardella earlier today.

The Wednesday search is in connection to an entirely separate case, according to the Paris public prosecutor's office.

It is related to a French judicial investigation – which was opened in July last year – into suspicions of unlawful financing of the far-right movement’s campaigns in the 2022 presidential and legislative elections, as well as the 2024 European elections.

“The purpose of the judicial investigation is to determine whether these campaigns were financed, notably through illegal loans from private individuals benefiting the party or RN candidates, as well as through overbilling for services or billing for fictitious services, which were subsequently included in claims submitted to the State for flat-rate reimbursement of campaign expenses,” the prosecutor’s office said.

According to Le Monde, the RN’s headquarters were raided by officers from the new Financial and Anti-Corruption Brigade of the Paris judicial police, in the presence of Jordan Bardella’s chief of staff, François Paradol.

Bardella is currently in Strasbourg for a plenary session of the European Parliament.

(vib)