The European Parliament is investigating alleged improper spending by Jordan Bardella’s Patriots group.
Marion Solletty, Max Griera
For the 2025 financial year, the Parliament is still examining the group’s accounts, according to an official familiar with the matter. However, the Patriots are expected to be ordered to repay a further €545,754.09 over similar breaches, according to an internal report from the Parliament’s department of finance sent to the institution’s budgetary control committee, seen by POLITICO and reported here for the first time.
The Prosecutor’s office confirmed last week’s raids, first reported by Le Monde, saying it was “conducting investigative measures in France and other European countries as part of an ongoing investigation into the use of European funds by a former political group.”
‘Due diligence’
The alleged irregular spending falls into two main categories. First, the group made donations of €100 to €1,800 to local and regional organizations at the request of individual MEPs, which the Parliament says weren’t related to political or policy issues relevant to the group’s work.
Beneficiaries included a Martinique-based futsal club, a tennis club in Guadeloupe, and a Guadeloupean quad-bike organization — located in two French overseas territories where Le Pen’s party has made recent breakthroughs. Their activities “are unrelated to the [Patriots] Group’s political or information activities,” the Parliament said in its audit report.
The second category concerned public procurement. According to the Parliament’s administration, several tender procedures breached procurement rules; shortcomings were identified in how the tenders were designed and documented, how bids were evaluated, and how contracts were awarded.
“There was a clear intention to work with particular companies (which prosecutors might characterize as the criminal offence of favoritism), and that the tender procedures were merely pro forma,” a Parliament official said.
