French police raid HQ of far-right Rassemblement National
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.
News of the raid was made public by Bardella in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, in which he denounced the police probe as 'a new campaign of harassment'.
'Since 8:50 this morning, the headquarters of Rassemblement National — including the offices of its leaders — have been searched by around 20 armed police officers from the Financial Brigade, wearing bulletproof vests and accompanied by two investigating judges,' Bardella posted.
'All emails, documents, and accounting records of the leading opposition party are being seized, and at this stage we do not know the precise nature of the allegations on which this action is based.
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'All we know is that all the files relating to the latest regional, presidential, legislative, and European campaigns – in other words, all the party's electoral activity – are now in the hands of the courts.
'This spectacular and unprecedented operation is clearly part of a new campaign of harassment. It is a serious attack on pluralism and democratic alternation.
'Never has an opposition party been subjected to such relentless persecution under the Fifth Republic.'
Contrary to Bardella's rabble-rousing rhetoric on, France's Parti Socialiste, the right-wing UMP (now Les Républicains), centrist MoDem and the hard-left La France Insoumise have all been subjected to similar judicial searches during the course of various investigations over the past decade.
Police also carried out searches of former Health Minister Olivier Véran's office and home in 2020 when a probe was opened into
the government handling of the Covid pandemic
.
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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 adviser to Le Pen and his wife.
No arrests have been made.
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