Bardella Faces EU Fraud Probe Amid French Election Scandal
Bardella faces an EPPO investigation, Le Pen awaits her appeal ruling, an Israeli firm is accused of election interference in France, and Attal is making his move
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This week
🌍The French Dispatch @ Globsec Forum 2026
🧑⚖️EU prosecutors open fraud probe into Bardella
🇮🇱France investigates potential election interference from Israel
📜500 mayors & local officials call for Attal presidential candidacy
🌍The French Dispatch @ Globsec Forum 2026
So, quick announcement: next week I’ll be participating in the Globsec Forum in Prague, and will be moderating an event as well as organising a handful of interviews.
If any of you dear readers of mine will be there, let me know so we can grab a coffee and catch up.
And if you’re there on Thursday afternoon and want to take part in what will be an excellent panel discussion, swing by to check out my panel on the Albright stage:
Is Europe’s House in Order? The EU’s Internal Readiness for a New Global Era
🧑⚖️EU prosecutors open fraud probe into Bardella
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has opened a formal investigation into suspected misuse of EU funds linked to Jordan Bardella. At the centre: €133,300 of European Parliament money allegedly spent coaching the RN leader for a French presidential campaign.
The probe traces back to a complaint filed in Paris last December by AC!!Anti-Corruption, who argue that European Parliament funds had been used to benefit Bardella personally. The French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office forwarded the file to the EPPO in Luxembourg, which, following a preliminary review of the evidence, confirmed it warranted a serious investigation.
What is the EPPO?
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office is an independent EU body based in Luxembourg, established in 2021 to investigate and prosecute crimes against the EU’s financial interests, including fraud, corruption, and money laundering.
Operating across 24 member states, it was managing over 2,600 active investigations covering an estimated €24.8 billion in damages by the end of 2024.
It does not comment on active cases.
But what do we know so far based on the reporting we’ve seen?
In April 2020, the Identity and Democracy group at the European Parliament launched a tender for a media coach. The contract went to Kon Tiki Conseil, the firm of Pascal Humeau, a former TV presenter turned communications consultant.
The problem: Kon Tiki had existed for barely a year.
The tender required three years of operating history, and a competing firm participating in the tender, Tartalacom, met that criterion while Kon Tiki did not. According to the complaint, the tender deadline was extended specifically to allow Humeau to apply, which Humeau himself reportedly acknowledged: the process “existed only for form,” and Bardella was the one who wanted to work with him.
From September 2021, the arrangement became legally problematic. Humeau, who was paid around €133,300 via the EP’s budget to train Identity and Democracy MEPs on European affairs, instead met Bardella 26 times to prepare him for Marine Le Pen’s 2022 French presidential campaign.
It’s important to note that EU regulations explicitly prohibit the use of European funds to finance national political campaigns, even in a superficial way. Humeau had reportedly described his client as a “coquille vide” (”empty shell”) before the training began, and after this training, Bardella became seen as one of the most polished communicators in French politics and was elected RN president in November 2022 with 85% of the membership vote.
Now, what is Bardella risking here?
Under Articles 432-15 and 131-26-2 of the French Penal Code, a conviction for misappropriation of public funds carries a maximum ten-year prison sentence and a fine of up to €1 million. Since 2016, ineligibility for public office has been mandatory for up to 10 years following conviction.
Bardella denies everything, insisting he operated in total conformity with the rules of the European Parliament. The Rassemblement National told AFP that 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.”
This is not the RN’s first brush with the EPPO. In July 2025, the office already opened a separate investigation into the Identity and Democracy group over €4.3 million in irregular communications spending.
The RN and 25 of its officials were also convicted in the parliamentary assistants case. A national judicial inquiry into possible overbilling during recent election campaigns is also open, and on July 7, an appeals court will rule on Marine Le Pen’s conviction in the assistants’ affair, which could bar her from the 2027 presidential race entirely.
🚨Prosecutors demand five-year ban from public office for Marine Le Pen
Prosecutors demand five years of prison time, five years of ineligibility, a €300,000 fine, and what would effectively be the end of both Marine Le Pen and the Le Pen dynasty
The plan was that if Le Pen lost her appeal, her protégé would step up to the plate, fight the election, and win. All polls currently indicate this for the first round, at least.
However, Bardella may be looking at his own ban from public life, which would blow the Presidential race wide open.
🇮🇱France investigates potential election interference from Israel
Staying on the topic of legally grey political activities: French authorities are currently investigating whether the Israeli firm BlackCore engaged in election interference intended to harm candidates from the far-left party La France Insoumise in the March municipal elections.
According to Reuters, this has even extended to intelligence services being involved in the investigation, and looking through deceptive websites, social media accounts, and disparaging digital adverts that formed part of the smear campaign.
This appears to have hit a few nerves, too, with journalists having been unable to find any information about its ownership, location, or company records. Not only this, but the BlackCore.online website was deleted alongside the company’s LinkedIn page.
Looking at the website archive, Blackcore describes itself as an “elite influence, cyber, and technology company built for the modern era of information warfare and digital competition” and claims to “empower governments and political campaigns with cutting-edge strategies, advanced tools, and robust security to shape narratives, safeguard digital domains, and gain a decisive edge.”
Based on what has been reported, the foreign interference targeted three candidates: Marseille mayoral candidate Sébastien Delogu, Toulouse candidate François Piquemal and Roubaix candidate David Guiraud. All of whom have been, like the rest of their party, strong supporters of Palestine and have focused on it heavily in past years since the conflict re-ignited.
For more of the nitty-gritty details on the investigation, go check out what Reuters have put out.
📜500 mayors & local officials call for Attal presidential candidacy
So, looking ahead to the presidential elections: 500 mayors and local officials have signed an op-ed in La Tribune Dimanche calling for Renaissance General Secretary, Gabriel Attal, to run as a candidate in the 2027 Presidential Elections.
The former prime minister, who is currently touring across France to meet citizens as part of his election manifesto launch, has been in tight negotiations with Edouard Philippe’s camp to outline the conditions for either candidate standing in the election or standing down in order to ensure that neither the far-left nor the far-right wins.
There have also been questions about whether it is even feasible for someone who was so close to Emmanuel Macron and who is still seen as a Macronist and a successor to the current president to win in a political environment so fraught and hostile to the incumbent.
However, with his regular excursions into the public eye, his ability to engage with the public, and now the increasing support from local elected officials, there is hope that Attal can compete with the growing strength of Edouard Philippe in the centre.
However, there is still a lot of work to do:
As you can see in the poll above, in most scenarios, the social-liberal Gabriel Attal still lags behind Edouard Philippe in voting intentions by around 5%.
On top of that, he finds himself well within range of the left-wing competition, with centre-left MEP Raphaël Glucksmann being within 2% of him, and far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon being within 1-2%.
And with 11 months to go until the Presidential elections, any improvements need to be made rapidly.
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