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. "All emails, documents, and accounting records of the main opposition party have been seized, although we do not know at this time the exact charges," Jordan Bardella, president of RN and a close confidant of Le Pen, said 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.

Loans from magnates

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 procedure opened a year ago into the alleged illicit financing of the RN campaigns in the 2022 presidential and legislative elections and the European elections. These campaigns have been intensified, also entrusted to the new financial and anti-corruption squad of the Paris judicial police.

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

Marine Le Pen's party enjoys significant resources from 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 level has skyrocketed. Far-right parties—RN and also Éric Zemmour's Reconquista—are the ones that account for the majority of the credit granted to political organizations in France. In France, party financing through loans from individuals is legal but strictly regulated. 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 French anti-corruption authorities.

This is not the first judicial investigation against the party for irregular financing. Their leader, Marine Le Pen was disqualified for fraudulently using European Parliament advisors..