Complaint for misappropriation of public funds seeks to consolidate the financial proceedings of the National Rally

This time, the complaint is not aimed directly at them. A few weeks after the search of the National Rally headquarters by investigators from the financial brigade, a complaint for misappropriation of public funds, favoritism, illegal taking of interests, as well as complicity and concealment of these offenses, was sent to the National Financial Prosecutor's Office by the AC!! Anticorruption association. Officially filed against unknown persons, it aims to obtain the centralization of recent financial procedures concerning Jordan Bardella 's far-right party.

"The purpose of this complaint is to demonstrate the systemic nature of the misuse of the law to increase the wealth of the RN and to allow access to power by any means, including illegal means," commented the association's lawyer, Mr. Karsenti. "The referral to the PNF is part of this dimension, namely to centralize all of the RN's practices in a single prosecution service."

At least three investigations are currently targeting the former party of Jean-Marie Le Pen and his daughter. In Paris, investigating judges have been looking into suspicions of illegal financing of the 2022 legislative and presidential campaigns and the 2024 European elections since July 2024, particularly around the system of personal loans from which the party benefits. This procedure led to the search of the RN headquarters on July 9. "Everything will be done to prevent us from accessing power," protested the president of the far-right party, Jordan Bardella, denouncing "judicial harassment" and assuring that the loans were "perfectly legal."

Another investigation has been underway in Marseille since 2021 into the financing of the latest municipal and regional campaigns of RN candidates in several cities and regions. As part of this procedure, which involves loans totaling €1.8 million, ultra-conservative billionaire Pierre-Edouard Stérin was questioned as a free suspect in June.

Finally, at the beginning of July, the European Public Prosecutor's Office announced the opening of an investigation into the former Identity and Democracy (ID) group, to which the RN belonged, suspected of having "unduly spent" more than 4.3 million euros between 2019 and 2024.

In its complaint, AC!! Anticorruption denounces, among others, the responsibility of Pierre-Edouard Stérin, Marine Le Pen , former president of the RN and MP, Jordan Bardella, Stéphane Ravier , senator and candidate in Marseille in 2020 and Thierry Mariani, candidate for the regional elections in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in 2021.

In its complaint, the association accuses Pierre-Edouard Stérin of having "developed a strategic plan to promote, in particular through substantial financial means, the RN's accession to power at all levels ." A "system" that Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella "could not ignore," according to AC!! Anticorruption.