Far-right National Rally says French police raided its party headquarters and seized documents

PARIS (AP) — French police raided the Paris headquarters of far-right party National Rally on Wednesday, seizing documents and accounting records, the party’s leader said.

Jordan Bardella, 29, who took over presidency of the popular party in 2022, said police seized “all files relating to the party’s recent regional, presidential, legislative, and European campaigns — in other words, all of its electoral activity.”

He slammed the raid in his message on X, describing it as an “act of harassment.”

“This spectacular and unprecedented operation is clearly part of a new harassment operation. It is a serious attack on pluralism and democratic change,” he said

The raid came after the party’s former leader Marine Le Pen was convicted of embezzlement in April. She and 24 other party officials were accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to instead pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, violating the 27-nation bloc’s regulations.

French prosecutors had no immediate comment.