French National Rally Headquarters Raided Amid Campaign Finance Probe, Sparking Outrage

The headquarters of France’s prominent far-right National Rally (RN) party became the scene of a significant police operation on Wednesday, as authorities conducted raids in connection with an ongoing inquiry into the party’s campaign finances. The move has ignited a firestorm of criticism from RN leaders, who have vehemently condemned the action as a “new harassment campaign” and a “spectacular and unprecedented” assault on democratic principles.

Prosecutors confirmed that the investigation is focusing on potential “fraud committed against a public figure” and alleged irregularities involving loans and donations across the party’s campaigns in 2022 and 2024. However, the RN’s former treasurer, Wallerand de Saint-Just, asserted the party’s innocence, stating, “All our campaign accounts have been approved and reimbursed.” He expressed his dismay outside the party’s Paris headquarters, telling reporters, “This process looks completely unacceptable and outrageous. We’re being persecuted on a daily basis.”

Despite facing a series of legal challenges, the National Rally is currently leading in French opinion polls. The party’s young president, Jordan Bardella, aged 29, has recently been recognized as the country’s most popular political figure. This surge in popularity comes at a crucial time, especially following recent legal setbacks for RN leader Marine Le Pen. Earlier this year, Le Pen was convicted of aiding in the embezzlement of EU funds and faced a five-year ban from holding office, a significant blow to her presidential aspirations.

Le Pen has appealed this conviction, branding it a “witch hunt.” Although she recently acknowledged the possibility of stepping aside for Bardella in the upcoming 2027 presidential election, the ongoing investigations cast a shadow over the party’s leadership and its electoral prospects. Bardella himself was in Strasbourg for a European Parliament session during the police raid, but he claimed that the search of his office was used as a pretext to seize internal party documents.

The prosecutors indicated that the inquiry aims to ascertain whether the party’s 2022 presidential and parliamentary campaigns, as well as its 2024 European election campaign, were improperly funded through “illicit payments by individuals that benefited the National Rally party or candidates.” Furthermore, investigators are examining the possibility of inflated or fictitious invoices submitted as campaign expenses to secure state reimbursements.

The National Rally has previously contended that allegations of illicit campaign financing stem from difficulties in securing funding from French banks, having previously obtained loans from Russian and Hungarian institutions. Adding to the party’s recent challenges, the European Union’s public prosecutor’s office has initiated a formal investigation into a former political grouping within the European Parliament, to which RN was affiliated. This group, Identity and Democracy, was dissolved last year amid suspicions of misusing parliamentary funds.

Bardella publicly denounced the European Parliament’s inquiry on Tuesday, labeling it a “new harassment operation.” The National Rally now finds itself part of the “Patriots for Europe” group, which comprises far-right parties from several European nations.