The Japan Times - EU prosecutors probe alleged misuse of funds linked to France's Bardella

The complaint, filed in Paris last December by anti-graft association AC!!Anti-Corruption, was forwarded by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) to the European Public Prosecutor's Office for assessment.

"Following a preliminary review, an investigation has been opened on suspicion of fraud," said the source.

The launch of the probe comes as Bardella's 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.

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.

Bardella is head of the Patriots for Europe group, the EU legislature's third-largest bloc that was co-founded by former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.

Contacted by AFP, a spokesman for the Luxembourg-based EPPO said: "It is the European Public Prosecutor's Office's policy not to comment on ongoing investigations."

- 'Defamation' -

A representative of the RN party told AFP: "Jordan 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."

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.

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.

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.

Bardella was then acting leader of the far-right party.

Funds held by members of the National Rally in their capacity as MEPs were allegedly used "for purposes other than those for which they were allocated", said the complaint seen by AFP.

The media training coach had been hired to "prepare National Rally MEPs for media appearances", 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.

The coach was "paid by the European Parliament from the budget allocated to MEPs", the complaint added.

The association cites an article in Le Canard Enchaine which "reveals that from September 2021" the coach was tasked with assisting Bardella "not with regard to his knowledge of European current affairs but with a view to preparing for the French presidential election in 2022".

Officially established in 2021, the European Public Prosecutor's Office is an independent EU body responsible for combating fraud against the Union's funds and any other offences affecting its financial interests.

K.Inoue--JT