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French prosecutors launch probe into Le Pen campaign finances | Election News
The prosecutor’s office says it will investigate allegations of embezzlement, forgery and fraud — and accusations that a candidate running for office accepted a loan.
French investigators are looking into the finances of far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen’s 2022 campaign for a election she lost to President Emmanuel Macron, prosecutors said.
The investigation, which was opened on July 2, follows a 2023 report by the National Commission for Campaign Accounts and Political Financing (CNCCFP), which analyzes candidates’ expenses and electoral financing, the Public Ministry said on Tuesday.
The company said it would investigate allegations of embezzlement, forgery, fraud — as well as allegations that a candidate running for office accepted a loan.
As leader of the far-right National Rally (RN) party until 2021, Marine Le Pen ran against Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and could run again in 2027.
In 2022, she invested about 11.5 million euros ($12.4 million) in her third bid for the presidency, the second time she faced Macron in the second round and lost to him.
In December 2022, the CNCCFP objected to expenses related to the placement and removal of campaign material on 12 buses, describing them as “irregular”.
Last month, France’s top court also upheld a conviction against RN for overcharging the state for campaign kits used by its candidates during the 2012 parliamentary elections.
Le Pen and her party have previously denied wrongdoing related to campaign financing. The RN party has not commented on the current investigation.
Separately, Le Pen will face trial later this year along with 27 others for alleged misuse of European Union funds, charges Le Pen’s party said it disputed.
The investigation, opened in 2016, aimed to determine whether the then National Front party had used money intended for EU parliamentary assistants to pay staff working for the party.