The European Public Prosecutor's Office opens an investigation into the National Rally and its allies in Parliament

"The European Public Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation," its spokesperson told AFP on Tuesday, July 8, without giving further details "so as not to compromise the results of the investigation." Along with its partners in the former Identity and Democracy (ID) group, this French party is suspected of having "unduly spent" more than €4.3 million between 2019 and 2024, according to a report from the Brussels institution's financial affairs department, revealed by several media outlets in early July.

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 and tainted 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 estimated at 260,000 euros. These facts are reminiscent of the so-called "campaign kits" affair , in which Frédéric Chatillon, Sighid Blanc and members of the former National Front were convicted of fraud and misuse of corporate assets.

Marine Le Pen was convicted in France in a separate case, known as the European Parliamentary Assistants case. At the end of March, she was sentenced, rendering her ineligible for any election—presidential or legislative—at least until her appeal hearing, scheduled for the summer of 2026. Last week, the far-right leader claimed to be unaware of the new case against her political family. "I don't know what it is; I haven't looked at it," she said.

More information to come…