Bardella dismisses the allegations against him, said the National Rally – Copyright AFP SEBASTIEN BOZON<\/p>\n
Francois Becker with Matthieu Demeestere in Brussels<\/p>\n
European Union prosecutors have launched a probe into a possible misappropriation of EU funds, after a complaint alleged France\u2019s far-right National Rally had used European grants to benefit its leader Jordan Bardella, a source close to the case told AFP Thursday.<\/p>\n
The complaint, filed in Paris last December by anti-graft association AC!!Anti-Corruption, was forwarded by the National Financial Prosecutor\u2019s Office (PNF) to the European Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office for assessment.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing a preliminary review, an investigation has been opened on suspicion of fraud,\u201d said the source.<\/p>\n
The launch of the probe comes as Bardella\u2019s mentor, Marine Le Pen, is seeking to overturn a court ruling that convicted her of embezzlement in 2025 and could derail her presidential bid next year.<\/p>\n
If an appeals court in July bars the 57-year-old from public office over an alleged fake jobs scam in European Parliament, Bardella, 30, is expected to run in her place.<\/p>\n
Bardella is head of the Patriots for Europe group, the EU legislature\u2019s third-largest bloc that was co-founded by former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.<\/p>\n
Contacted by AFP, a spokesman for the Luxembourg-based EPPO said: \u201cIt is the European Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office\u2019s policy not to comment on ongoing investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Defamation\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
A representative of the RN party told AFP: \u201cJordan Bardella naturally denies these accusations levelled against him in the current political climate, and reserves the right to take legal action for defamation and slander.\u201d<\/p>\n
The anti-corruption association had filed a complaint in December 2025 over the misappropriation of public funds, following an article in French investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaine.<\/p>\n
The association suspects the RN of having used European funds to train its members, and in particular its current president Bardella, to address the media during the 2022 French presidential election campaign.<\/p>\n
Le Pen made it to the second round of the presidential election in 2022 but was defeated by Emmanuel Macron, who won five more years as president.<\/p>\n
Bardella was then acting leader of the far-right party.<\/p>\n
Funds held by members of the National Rally in their capacity as MEPs were allegedly used \u201cfor purposes other than those for which they were allocated\u201d, said the complaint seen by AFP.<\/p>\n
The media training coach had been hired to \u201cprepare National Rally MEPs for media appearances\u201d, the anti-corruption group said in its complaint to the PNF, the French judicial authority specialising in tax fraud and serious economic and financial crime.<\/p>\n
The coach was \u201cpaid by the European Parliament from the budget allocated to MEPs\u201d, the complaint added.<\/p>\n
The association cites an article in Le Canard Enchaine which \u201creveals that from September 2021\u201d the coach was tasked with assisting Bardella \u201cnot with regard to his knowledge of European current affairs but with a view to preparing for the French presidential election in 2022\u201d.<\/p>\n
Officially established in 2021, the European Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office is an independent EU body responsible for combating fraud against the Union\u2019s funds and any other offences affecting its financial interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bardella dismisses the allegations against him, said the National Rally – Copyright AFP SEBASTIEN BOZON Francois Becker with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3236,1816,5,346],"class_list":["post-12645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-corruption","tag-eu","tag-france","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}