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French financial police have raided the headquarters of France’s far-right Rassemblement National party, seizing documents relating to recent electoral campaigns, the party’s leader Jordan Bardella said on Wednesday.
Bardella said in a post on X that about 20 armed officers of France’s financial police brigade had raided the party’s Paris office on Wednesday morning and seized emails, documents and accounting information. He said he did not know the reason.
“The entirety of the files concerning the recent regional, presidential, parliamentary and European campaigns — all the party’s electoral activity — are today in the hands of the judiciary,” Bardella said.
He said the officers were accompanied by two investigating judges.
The operation comes months after the RN’s three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and other party members were found guilty of embezzling EU funds, potentially blocking her from running for office in 2027 presidential elections. She is appealing against the verdict.
Bardella said: “This spectacular and unprecedented operation is clearly a new [kind of] harassment. It’s a serious attack on pluralism and democratic transition. An opposition party has never suffered such persecution under the Fifth Republic.”
This is a developing story
