RN: new accusation for irregularities in the European Parliament

Failure to award tenders, overcharging, and donations to charities: the National Rally and several of its allies in the European Parliament are suspected of various irregularities, according to a report from the Brussels institution revealed on Thursday, July 3, by Le Monde along with other German and Austrian media.

Following the European Parliamentary Assistants affair, which led to Marine Le Pen and several senior members of her party being convicted at the end of March (the appeal hearing is scheduled to take place by summer 2026), new accusations from Brussels are targeting the National Rally. This time, the far-right party, along with its allies from the former Identity and Democracy group, is suspected of having "improperly spent" more than €4.3 million between 2019 and 2024, according to a report from the European Parliament's Directorate for Financial Affairs.

According to this document, revealed by Le Monde as well as by the German television program Kontraste, the magazine Die Welt and the Austrian weekly Falter , the majority of this sum benefited two companies linked to people close to Marine Le Pen, namely her former advisor Frédéric Chatillon and his wife Sighid Blanc.

The communications agency e-Politic thus received 1.7 million euros after a "purely formal" call for tenders, marred by "serious compliance problems" according to the Brussels inspectors, who therefore consider that "all these expenses (...) are irregular" .

The same goes for the company Unanime, which pocketed more than 1.4 million euros for printing work, which was also subcontracted at a lower cost, with a profit margin estimated at 260,000 euros. These facts are reminiscent of the so-called "campaign kits" affair , in which Frédéric Chatillon, Sighild Blanc and members of the former National Front were convicted of fraud and misuse of corporate assets.

The RN and its allies are also being incriminated by the European Parliament for multiple donations to associations that have "no connection" with their political activities in Brussels. Sterilization of stray cats, firefighters' association, restoration of a parish... In total, more than €700,000 has been distributed over five years to organizations often linked to relatives of far-right MEPs, or located in their electoral region.

Speaking to Le Monde , the former secretary general of the Identity and Democracy group, the Belgian Philip Claeys, rejected outright what he called "incorrect allegations" , assuring that "all payments made in the last five years have been duly invoiced, justified and controlled" .

Asked about this on Thursday morning on RTL, Marine Le Pen said she was not aware of it: "I don't know what it is, I haven't looked at this file." But "there may be administrative disagreements with the European Parliament" and "we will try, once again, to resolve them," she added, before describing the institution as a "political body (which) wages trench warfare against its opposition" and "picks a fight with her morning, noon and night, in all circumstances."