The China Mail - France police raid far-right party offices over campaign financing

The party of Marine Le Pen, the longtime standard bearer of the French far right, has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years.

The 56-year-old politician, who has three times run for president, suffered a stunning blow in March when a French court convicted her and other party officials over an EU parliament fake jobs scam.

The ruling, which Le Pen has appealed, banned her from standing for office for five years, effectively scuppering her ambition of running in 2027 presidential elections.

Le Pen has asked her top lieutenant, 29-year-old party leader and member of European Parliament Jordan Bardella, to prepare to campaign in her place.

"RN headquarters -- including the offices of its leaders -- are being searched by around 20 police officers from the financial brigade," Bardella said on X on Wednesday morning.

Police accompanied by two investigating magistrates had seized "all emails, documents and accounting" records of the party, he added.

They included "all files related to the last regional, presidential, parliamentary and European (election) campaigns", Bardella said, denouncing what he called "a new harassment operation".

- Alleged 'illegal loans' -

The Paris prosecutor's office said police had raided the party's offices as part of an investigation launched in July last year into alleged illegal campaign financing for the 2022 presidential and parliamentary elections, as well as the European polls last year.

The investigation seeks to "determine whether these campaigns were notably funded through illegal loans from individuals to the party or RN candidates", the prosecutor's office added.

It would also look into allegations the party had included inflated or fake invoices in its claims for the state to reimburse its campaign finances, said the office.

Police also searched the offices and homes of several company bosses on Wednesday as part of the investigation covering the period of January 2020 to July 2024, it said.

In a separate case, the EU's prosecutor said Tuesday it has launched a formal investigation into a defunct far-right group, which included France's RN, over the alleged misuse of European Parliament funds.

According to the reports by a consortium of European media, most of the allegedly misused funds benefited companies belonging to a former advisor to Le Pen and his wife.

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C.Fong--ThChM