French police raid headquarters of far-right National Rally party
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The news: Police raided the headquarters of France’s far-right party National Rally on Wednesday, over alleged campaign finance violations and fraud.
The context: The party’s leader Jordan Bardella said in a post on X that around 20 officers from France’s “financial police brigade” raided the offices just before 9am local time in Paris, seizing documents and accounting information. He said that two investigating judges accompanied the police and that he did “not know precisely what the grounds for this action are” and claimed that all “emails, documents and accounting records belonging to the [National Rally] have been seized.”
“This operation, spectacular and unprecedented, is clearly part of a new harassment campaign. It is a serious attack on pluralism and democratic alternation. Never has an opposition party faced such relentless targeting under the Fifth Republic,” Bardella wrote.
The operation comes after former party leader and three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and other National Rally party members were convicted of embezzling EU funds in March, potentially halting her ability to run for office in France’s 2027 elections. Le Pen is appealing the decision.
The numbers: Le Pen was accused of misusing funds amounting to around €7 million ($12 million) between 2004 and 2016 when she was a member of European Parliament. Prosecutors had said that Le Pen's punishment should be not just a €300,000 fine and prison term, but also ineligibility from running for public office for five years.
The sources: Jordan Bardella X, FT, Politico
