France: police raid the headquarters of the opposition National Rally party

Financial crimes officers and two judges raided the headquarters of the National Rally (RN) party in Paris on Wednesday, according to its leader, Jordan Bardella, who denounced the move as “harassment.”

The operation is part of the judicial investigation opened in July 2024 for suspicions of illegal financing of the campaigns for the presidential and legislative elections in 2022 and European in 2024, said the Paris prosecutor's office.

Justice already condemned in March the main opposition party in a trial for embezzlement of European public funds, which also resulted in the immediate disqualification for five years of its leader, Marine Le Pen.

The operation

Bardella indicated on the social network X that the raid began at 8:30 a.m. and that they seized "all the mails, documents and accounting elements," although he assured that they do not know "the precise reasons for the seizure."

The party president further indicated that the search also included "the offices of the leaders" and that they took the files of the last regional, presidential, legislative and European elections.

"This is a serious attack against pluralism and democratic change," commented on the social network Bardella, who described the actions as "a new harassment operation" against the party, which is leading the polls for the first round of the next presidential election.

Le Pen and her disqualification

Hoping to be able to run in the election and awaiting the trial on appeal, Le Pen asked on Tuesday the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to suspend the immediate execution of her disqualification.

French justice has been investigating since July 2024 loans granted by private individuals to the far-right movement, following a complaint by the National Commission on Campaign Accounts and Political Financing (CNCCFP).

The investigations should be able to determine whether the campaigns were financed by "illegal loans from private individuals" and whether "cost overruns" or "fictitious services" were billed to the state, the prosecutor's office specified.

Loans from private individuals are authorized with precise conditions and with a limit, but RN is "the party that has used them the most" in recent years, according to the president of the CNCCFP, Christian Charpy.

The operation comes a day after the European public prosecutor's office announced the opening of an investigation into alleged financial irregularities by RN and its far-right ex-allies in the European Parliament.