France: Raid on right-wing populist party headquarters

In France, police searched the party headquarters of the right-wing populist Rassemblement National (RN) . The Paris public prosecutor's office said they suspected fraud and violations of campaign financing regulations. The searches were related to investigations launched last week.

The investigations aim to clarify whether the 2022 parliamentary and presidential election campaigns and the 2024 European election campaign were financed by illegal loans from private individuals that benefited the RN party or candidates.

The public prosecutor's office also stated that excessive invoices for services or invoices for fictitious services were later included in applications for lump-sum state reimbursement of campaign expenses. In addition to the party headquarters, the headquarters of several companies and the residences of their managing directors were also searched.

Bardella: Attack on democracy

RN party leader Jordan Bardella spoke of a "new harassment campaign." Around 20 financial police officers and two investigating judges searched the offices of the party leaders on Wednesday morning and confiscated numerous documents, he announced on the online service X.

The party leader declared this a "serious attack on pluralism" and democracy in France. All party documents from the past regional, presidential, parliamentary, and European elections are now in the hands of the judiciary, Bardella said. The 29-year-old is currently being discussed as a possible presidential candidate for the RN in the upcoming 2027 election.

Just last March, RN leader Marine Le Pen was convicted of embezzling EU funds and barred from the upcoming presidential election . Le Pen has appealed the verdict and turned to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Investigations also against the EU far-right group

According to the EU Public Prosecutor's Office, the searches are not related to the investigations announced the previous day against the now-disbanded far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament. According to investigative media reports, this group, which included the AfD as well as the RN, is said to have embezzled approximately €4.3 million in EU funds.

ch/jj (dpa, rtr, afp)

Editorial deadline: 5:00 PM (CEST) - this article will not be updated further.