French hard-right leader Marine Le Pen faces fraud probe for ‘illegal financing’ days after her National Rally suffered shock election defeat

French prosecutors today launched an investigation into “illegal financing” by Marine Le Pen and her far-right Rassemblement National party.

This came after they were defeated in the parliamentary elections last weekend and finished in third place.

Judicial sources in Paris confirmed on Tuesday that the new criminal investigation concerns Ms Le Pen’s bid to become president of France in 2022.

“A judicial investigation was launched following a report to the courts by the National Commission on Campaign Accounts and Political Financing,” one of them said.

The investigation is believed to be linked to the alleged misuse of European Parliament taxpayers’ money by the RN (Rassemblement National – French for National Rally).

Marine Le Pen arrives at the headquarters of the far-right RN party in Paris yesterday, a day after the second round of France’s legislative elections. The French president was due to begin efforts on Monday to liberate France from its worst political uncertainty in decades, after the left defeated the far-right in elections in which no group won an outright majority.

Ms Le Pen already faces criminal sanctions and a ban on running for elected office if she is found guilty following an embezzlement trial set to begin in Paris in September.

The 55-year-old is alleged to have illegally stolen around €620,000 (£513,000) on behalf of her party.

Le Pen may have to appear in court along with 12 other members of the RN (formerly known as the Front National).

When Mrs Le Pen heard about the trial last September, she accused the judiciary of acting in a way that was “above all political”.

She added: ‘We will present our arguments to the court on their merits.’ All involved deny any wrongdoing.

Supporters of Marine Le Pen react after the publication of projections based on the actual vote count in selected constituencies, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in northern France. French voters propelled the far-right Rassemblement National to a strong lead in the first round of parliamentary elections on Sunday, plunging the country into political uncertainty, according to pollsters.

Ms Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marine Le Pen, the 95-year-old founder of the FN, was also on the list of defendants but was ruled last week to be “unfit to stand trial” because of his age.

Embezzlement is a criminal offence punishable in France by ‘up to 10 years in prison’, with judges also facing fines of up to around £1 million.

In the Le Pen case, prosecutors are demanding “the additional penalty of deprivation of the right to be elected, for a period of up to five years,” a source close to the case said.

Ms Le Pen is currently a member of parliament. If convicted after a trial, she would not run for president in 2027, even though she calls herself a future president.

The investigation into RN fraud began in March 2015, when the European Parliament announced that it had referred possible irregularities to the EU Anti-Fraud Office.

Supporters of the green party The Ecologists-EELV celebrate the first results of the second round of the French parliamentary elections during the party’s election night event in Paris on Sunday

Tens of thousands of people gathered at the Place de la République last week to protest against the far-right Rassemblement National party in Paris, France.

It mainly concerned the salaries of parliamentary staff and even of Mrs Le Pen’s bodyguard.

Ms Le Pen is accused of personally funneling around £114,000 (€137,000) in EU funds into the party coffers, illegally obtained during her time as an MEP between 2004 and 2017.

This effectively means that the party used the EU money for its own business in Paris, and not for work in Brussels.

Le Pen came second in the race for the French presidency in 2022, behind Emmanuel Macron, after a similar result in 2017.

Party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, in turn, finished second behind Jacques Chirac in the 2002 presidential election.

Le Pen has previously been convicted by a criminal court, including for spreading racial hatred, Holocaust denial and other anti-Semitic crimes.

Before Sunday evening, the RN confidently predicted that it would win a majority in the National Assembly in Paris and that it would form the next government.

Le Pen said she was waiting to become president in 2027, while her protégé, 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, would become prime minister.

But the election was won by the New Popular Front, an alliance of left-wing and centrist parties formed to block the RN. Macron’s Rennaissance/Samen alliance came in second.

No party obtained an absolute majority, resulting in a stalemate in parliament and no vote.