Le Pen and the Rassemblement National sentenced - Raids in France, Spain, Italy, and Belgium

On July 7, an appeals court in Paris upheld the conviction of Marine Le Pen for embezzlement but revised the sentence. The leader of the RN has now been barred from holding public office for 15 months. Her prison sentence was reduced from five years to three, of which she must serve only one year—under house arrest and with an ankle monitor. After brief consideration, Marine Le Pen decided to appeal the verdict to the Supreme Court and to maintain her candidacy. Her designated successor, Jordan Bardella, has recently been predicted in polls to have the same chances of success if he were to take over the candidacy.

However, the RN is not only dealing with this ruling. In a separate case involving the alleged embezzlement of funds from the former EU parliamentary group Identity & Democracy (ID), searches were conducted in several European countries on June 30. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) had ordered the raids in France, Spain, Italy, and Belgium. In France, “offices and private residences of communications service providers who have worked with us” were affected, Jordan Bardella wrote on X.

The ID parliamentary group, which was dissolved in 2024, included, among others, MEPs from the AfD. We had previously reported on the investigations, which now pertain to the Patriots for Europe (PfE) parliamentary group. It is unclear whether and how MEPs from the German party were or are being investigated.

While the PfE group is fighting back against being regarded by the investigating authorities as the successor to the ID group, it is already facing a scandal of its own making. As research by the French outlet Mediapart revealed in June, the PfE Foundation had already commissioned Swiss multi-activist and neo-Nazi Manuel Corchia in February 2026 and compensated him financially for the work. Corchia reportedly documented a roundtable in Strasbourg with photos and video on behalf of the PfE. Cost: 2,648.45 euros. According to Mediapart, the contact may have been established through Austrian Member of the European Parliament Petra Steger (FPÖ), who was present at the events. Steger had hired a member of the Swiss neo-Nazi group Junge Tat—an organization that Corchia co-founded. Reports by the outstanding investigative journalists at Mediapart, Blick (CH), and l’Humanité.