Prosecutors say they may examine allegations of embezzlement, forgery and fraud, and allegations {that a} candidate on the marketing campaign path accepted a mortgage.
French investigators are trying into the funds of far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen’s 2022 marketing campaign for an election she misplaced to President Emmanuel Macron, prosecutors mentioned.
The investigation, which was opened on July 2, follows a 2023 report by the Nationwide Fee on Marketing campaign Accounts and Political Financing (CNCCFP), which examines candidates’ electoral spending and financing, the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned on Tuesday.
He mentioned he would examine allegations of embezzlement, forgery and fraud, in addition to allegations {that a} candidate on the marketing campaign path accepted a mortgage.
As chief of the far-right Nationwide Rally (RN) occasion till 2021, Marine Le Pen ran towards Emmanuel Macron within the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and will run once more in 2027.
By 2022, she had invested round 11.5 million euros ($12.4 million) in her third bid for the presidency, the second time she confronted Macron within the second spherical and misplaced to him.
In December 2022, the CNCCFP had denounced the bills associated to the meeting and disassembly of marketing campaign materials on 12 buses, describing them as “irregular”.
Final month, France’s high courtroom additionally upheld a conviction towards the RN for overcharging the state for marketing campaign supplies utilized by its candidates through the 2012 parliamentary elections.
Le Pen and her occasion have previously denied wrongdoing in relation to marketing campaign financing. The RN occasion has not commented on the present investigation.
Le Pen is because of stand trial later this 12 months alongside 27 others for alleged misuse of EU funds, prices Le Pen’s occasion has mentioned it refutes.
The investigation, launched in 2016, aimed to find out whether or not the then Nationwide Entrance occasion had used cash supposed for European parliamentary assistants to pay employees working for the occasion.
