Searches were carried out on Tuesday June 30 in several European countries including France, as part of an investigation by the European prosecutor’s office suspecting misappropriation of EU funds by the former Identity and Democracy (ID) group, where the French far-right party RN was based, the court said.
The president of the National Rally (RN), Jordan Bardella, confirmed that service providers who worked for his party had been the target of police raids, without naming names. The number of searches and the countries concerned were not detailed by the European prosecutor’s office.
According to the newspaper Le Monde, they take place in France, Spain, Italy and Belgium. In a press release, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office specified that it was “currently carrying out investigative measures in France and other European countries as part of an ongoing investigation into the use of European funds by a former political group in the European Parliament between 2019 and 2024”.
This independent EU body responsible for combating fraud with Union funds was alerted by a report from the European Parliament’s financial affairs department, prompting it to announce the opening of an investigation in July 2025. The report indicated that with its partners in the former ID group, including the Northern League of the Italian Matteo Salvini, the National Rally was suspected of having “unduly spent” more than 4.3 million euros. between 2019 and 2024.
If the French party did not exercise during this term either the presidency or the general secretariat of Identity and Democracy, the majority of this sum benefited two companies linked to those close to Marine Le Pen: her former advisor Frédéric Chatillon and his wife Sighild Blanc, specified the document which leaked to the media. These are the communication agencies e-Politic and Unanime. The searches carried out on Tuesday add to the legal turmoil of the RN: the Paris Court of Appeal must say on July 7 whether it confirms the ineligibility of Marine Le Pen in the affair of European parliamentary assistants.
“Since early this morning, searches have been underway at the headquarters and personal homes of communications providers who have worked with us,” Jordan Bardella reported on the X network. “At the same time, Le Canard chainé also informs us of the upcoming opening of a judicial investigation concerning me, following a complaint from an activist association, about a job held for a few months in the European Parliament (…) almost twelve years ago,” he continued.
This possible appointment of an investigating judge, as desired by the anti-corruption association Anticor, which filed a complaint, would open a new judicial front for the RN. In this case, Anticor believes that the leader of the far-right party must answer for his activities during the four and a half months in 2015 when he was the parliamentary assistant to MEP Jean-François Jalkh.
The association also requests that an investigating magistrate investigate for forgery the documents produced by Jordan Bardella and his relatives to attest to his work. “As always, the legal proceedings announce the electoral calendar,” said Jordan Bardella. And to affirm: “We have nothing to reproach ourselves for, and we will show it”.
Another investigation by the European prosecutor’s office concerning Jordan Bardella was revealed last May, investigations triggered by an article in Le Canard Enchaîné then a complaint against X filed in Paris by the AC Anti-Corruption association. The association suspects the RN of having taken advantage of European funds to train its troops, and in particular Jordan Bardella, to address the media during the campaign for the 2022 French presidential election. The MEP was then the interim president of the far-right party, playing an active role in Marine Le Pen’s campaign.
