French authorities raid National Rally HQ over alleged finance crimes
July 9 (UPI) -- French law enforcement conducted a raid Wednesday on the headquarters of the National Rally Party as part of an ongoing investigation into possible financial crimes.
National Rally President Jordan Bardella said on X Wednesday that "about 20 financial brigade police officers, armed and wearing bulletproof vests, accompanied by two investigating judges," arrived at RN HQ at around 2:50 a.m. EDT and ostensibly seized "all emails, documents, and accounting records of the leading opposition party."
He further claimed his group wasn't informed about what led to the seizure.
"This operation, spectacular and unprecedented, is clearly part of a new harassment campaign," Bardella said. "It is a serious attack on pluralism and democratic alternation."
The Parisian prosecutor's office has explained the investigation is intended to determine if the National Rally in any way financed its campaigns through illegal loans between 2020 and 2024.
No one has been charged in connection to the Wednesday raid but does come about three months after former RN leader Marine Le Pen was found guilty of misusing European Parliament monies and sent to prison.
"Suspecting our activists," said Bardella in a follow-up X post Wednesday, "who lend to the RN due to the lack of banks willing to do so, of 'illegally practicing the profession of banker' is a farce."
He went on to allege that the RN headquarters raid was a political stunt.
"Nothing to do with justice, everything to do with politics," he concluded.
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