European Public Prosecutor's Office opens investigation into RN and its allies in Parliament: Bardella denounces "harassment"

The European Public Prosecutor's Office announced Tuesday that it had opened an investigation into the political family that holds the French far-right National Rally, which remains in Parliament until 2024, on suspicion of various financial irregularities. The party's French president, Jordan Bardella , subsequently denounced a "new harassment operation by the European Parliament administration."

"I don't think anyone is fooled by this type of operation," he said at a press conference in Strasbourg, regretting that the "legal battle" is "unfortunately part of the political battle."

Along with its partners from the former Identity and Democracy (ID) group, the National Rally is suspected of having "unduly spent" more than €4.3 million between 2019 and 2024, according to a report from the Brussels institution's financial affairs department, revealed by several media outlets in early July.

Although the French party did not hold the presidency or general secretariat of this coalition (at the time dominated by the Italian Northern League) during this period, the majority of this sum benefited two companies linked to people close to Marine Le Pen : her former advisor Frédéric Chatillon and his wife Sighild Blanc.

According to this document, the communications agency e-Politic received 1.7 million euros after a "purely formal" call for tenders, marred by "serious compliance problems" according to the Brussels inspectors, who therefore consider that "all these expenses (...) are irregular."

The same goes for the company Unanime, which pocketed more than 1.4 million euros for printing work, which was also subcontracted at a lower cost, with a margin estimated at 260,000 euros.

In response to these accusations, a spokesperson for the European Public Prosecutor's Office announced that it had opened an investigation, confirming a report by the media outlet Euractiv. She did not provide further details "so as not to compromise the results of the investigation." The European Parliament said it "takes note of the prosecutor's decision." "As always, the Parliament cooperates fully with national or European authorities when requested to do so," its press office said.

Jordan Bardella, who heads the Patriots, the new far-right political family in Brussels, harshly criticized the Parliament's administration, accusing it of releasing "confidential exchanges" to the press.

The group's former directors "contest all of the accusations made by the European administration," he also stressed.

The French MEP, however, was keen to distance himself from the former Identity and Democracy group: "I am the president of the Patriots, I was not the president of Identity and Democracy, and there is no legal link between our two entities." Marine Le Pen, for her part, has not yet responded to the opening of this investigation.

Last week, she claimed to be unaware of the new case against her political family. "I don't know what it is, I haven't looked into it," she told RTL. The far-right leader was convicted in a separate case, known as the European Parliamentary Assistants case.

At the end of March, she was sentenced to a penalty that made her ineligible for any election - presidential or legislative - at least until her appeal trial, scheduled for the summer of 2026. The far-right leader announced on Tuesday that she had appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to challenge the ineligibility sentence.