French police raid Le Pen's party headquarters for alleged illegal financing

BarcelonaSince early this morning, police have been searching the headquarters of the National Regrouping (RN), the far-right party led by Marine Le Pen, as part of an investigation into suspected illegal financing. Jordan Bardella, president of RN and a close confidant of Le Pen, wrote on his X account.

The MEP also described the move as a "harassment maneuver" and a "serious attack on pluralism and democratic change." "Never before has an opposition party suffered such relentless attacks during the Fifth Republic," he asserted.

The French justice system is investigating loans granted by tycoons to the far-right party and its candidates in recent years. As part of a case opened on July 3 of last year, it has been entrusted to the new financial and anti-corruption brigade of the Paris judicial police. The investigation into alleged embezzlement and illicit financing of the RN campaigns in the 2022 presidential and legislative elections, as well as alleged inflated government bills, has been opened to the French judicial police.

In addition to the RN headquarters, the "headquarters of its companies [that provide services to electoral campaigns, suspected of overcharging] and the homes of the individuals who managed these companies have been searched," according to the Paris Prosecutor's Office, which conducts these investigations within the state jurisdiction to combat organized crime. "So far, no individual or legal entity has been charged in this procedure," it stated. According to the newspaper Le MondeRN creditors have been questioned in recent months across the country.

Marine Le Pen's party enjoys significant direct public funding, in line with its strong electoral results in the legislative elections (€10 million in 2023 and the same amount in 2024), but at the same time, its debt levels have skyrocketed. Far-right parties—the Nationalist Nationalist Party (RN) and also Éric Zemmour's Reconquista—are the ones that account for the largest share of the credit granted to political organizations in France: in total, these two parties accounted for 98% of the total amount lent.

In France, party financing through loans from individuals is legal, but strictly regulated. In fact, in 2023, only nine of the 594 political parties registered in France used this method of financing. The loans must be repaid over a specified period—a maximum of eighteen months or five years, depending on the interest rate chosen—and must not be made "regularly." This last point is what has caught the attention of the National Commission on Campaign Accounts and Political Financing. However, there is some legal controversy surrounding the term "regular," which is not defined in any legal text.

Recurring corruption

This is not the first judicial investigation against the party for irregular financing. Its leader, Marine Le Pen was banned from office for five years for fraudulently using European Parliament advisors., which cost around 4.2 million euros. The disqualification could mean the far-right leader cannot run in the 2027 presidential elections, although an appeal process is still open and should be resolved in 2026. In addition, Le Pen was sentenced to two years in prison.

For now, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has rejected Le Pen's request to temporarily suspend her disqualification. The ECHR's unanimous decision is based on the fact that "no imminent risk of irreparable infringement of a right protected by the European Convention on Human Rights has been established," according to a statement issued by the court.

On the other hand, in June of last year, the Court of Cassation (the French equivalent of the Supreme Court) upheld the ruling against the National Regrouping Party (Régrupament National) for having inflated its bills to the State during the 2012 legislative elections.

The matter doesn't end there, because this morning's search comes the day after the European Public Prosecutor's Office announced the opening of an investigation into the RN and its allies in the European Parliament. According to reports released by the newspaper Le MondeThe report by the Parliament's Directorate-General for Finance accuses the former Identity and Democracy parliamentary group, which was dissolved in 2024 and of which Le Pen's group was a member, of having illegally distributed some €4.33 million in donations to associations.