PARIS: The Paris prosecutor’s workplace stated on Tuesday (Jul 9) it had launched a preliminary probe into allegations of unlawful financing of far proper Nationwide Rally (RN) chief Marine Le Pen’s marketing campaign for the 2022 presidential race, which she misplaced to Emmanuel Macron.
The investigation, which was opened on Jul 2, follows a 2023 report by the Nationwide Fee on Marketing campaign Accounts and Political Financing (CNCCFP), which scrutinises candidates’ election bills and funding, the prosecutor’s workplace stated.
It would look into allegations of embezzlement, forgery, fraud, and {that a} candidate on an electoral marketing campaign accepted a mortgage.
Le Pen and her occasion have beforehand denied wrongdoing in reference to marketing campaign financing. The Nationwide Rally couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
Individually Le Pen is to face trial later this yr alongside 27 others over alleged misuse of European Union funds, expenses that Le Pen’s occasion has stated it contested.
That investigation, opened in 2016, aimed to determine whether or not the then Nationwide Entrance had used cash destined for EU parliamentary assistants to pay workers who had been working for the occasion.
On the head of RN till 2021, Marine Le Pen ran in opposition to Emmanuel Macron within the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and will once more run in 2027.