"Centralize all RN practices": a complaint requests the consolidation of financial procedures targeting the party

The justice system must "centralize all of the RN's practices into a single prosecution service." This is what the AC!! Anticorruption association is demanding. It has filed a complaint with the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) to obtain the centralization of recent financial procedures concerning the National Rally (RN) , its lawyer, Jérôme Karsenti, announced on Wednesday.

The complaint, seen by AFP, was filed against unknown persons for misappropriation of public property, favouritism, illegal taking of interests, as well as complicity and concealment of these offences.

"The purpose of this complaint is to demonstrate the systemic nature of the abuse of the law to increase the RN's wealth and to allow access to power by any means, including illegal means," Karsenti told AFP. "The referral to the PNF is part of this dimension, namely to centralize all of the RN's practices in a single prosecution service," he declared.

In Paris, investigating judges have been investigating suspicions of illegal financing of the 2022 legislative and presidential campaigns and the 2024 European elections since July 2024. The RN headquarters was searched on July 9 in this case, which concerns a personal loan system .

"Everything will be done to prevent us from gaining power," protested the president of the far-right party, Jordan Bardella , denouncing "judicial harassment" and assuring that the loans were "perfectly legal."

Another investigation has been underway in Marseille since 2021 into the financing of the latest municipal and regional campaigns of RN candidates in several cities and regions. As part of this procedure, which involves loans totaling €1.8 million, ultra-conservative billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin was questioned as a free suspect in June.

Finally, at the beginning of July, the European Public Prosecutor's Office announced the opening of an investigation into the former Identity and Democracy (ID) group , to which the RN belonged, suspected of having "unduly spent" more than 4.3 million euros between 2019 and 2024.

In its complaint, AC!! Anticorruption denounces, among others, the responsibility of Pierre-Édouard Stérin, Marine Le Pen, former president of the RN and MP, Jordan Bardella, Stéphane Ravier, senator and candidate in Marseille in 2020 and Thierry Mariani, candidate for the regional elections in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in 2021.

In its complaint, the association accuses Pierre-Édouard Stérin of having "developed a strategic plan to promote, in particular through substantial financial means, the RN's accession to power at all levels." A "system" that Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella "could not ignore," according to AC!! Anticorruption.