France’s Rassemblement National (RN), led by Marine Le Pen, is reeling from a crushing financial blow just months ahead of the presidential race.
After being found guilty in the long-running EU parliamentary assistants case, the European Parliament is now demanding that Le Pen’s party cough up €3.5 million in damages—an amount that could derail its campaign plans and potentially its very future.
The ruling follows a French court’s decision in the high-profile case, which centered on allegations that RN misused public funds by placing party staff on the EU payroll under false pretenses. Though the total amount of damage was pegged at €4.5 million, the RN has already returned €1 million. What remains includes roughly €3.25 million in economic damages, €200,000 for moral damages, and €80,000 in legal fees.
According to a statement from the European Parliament, the case isn’t just about party finances—it’s about protecting European taxpayers. “This money was misappropriated from European citizens,” the Parliament asserted, framing the scandal as a betrayal of both French and EU voters.
Le Pen hasn’t minced words in responding to the decision. With visible frustration, she framed the ruling as a politically motivated attempt to knock her out of the presidential race and choke her party’s resources. “It’s not only about sidelining a candidate,” she said. “If they can bring down the party too, well then that’s just a bonus.”
While the party is appealing the ruling, the court has ordered immediate payment, meaning the RN can’t delay cutting the check. They’ve asked for an installment plan, but that won’t ease the sting of the timing—or the scale—of the penalty.
For a party long shackled by financial woes and routinely rejected by French banks, this judgment couldn’t have come at a worse time. The RN has traditionally leaned on public funding tied to electoral results and, controversially, on foreign loans after being stonewalled domestically. It only recently repaid a much-criticized loan from a Czech-Russian bank—ten years in the making and politically costly.
While party officials claim they can manage the payment, doing so would all but drain their campaign war chest, putting them at a serious disadvantage against better-funded rivals. With the clock ticking to the next election, the RN is now juggling political strategy with financial survival.
