As Marine Le Pen’s appeal trial gets underway, Jordan Bardella, president of the Rassemblement National (RN), is also the target of a legal offensive. An anti-corruption association is accusing him of “favouritism and embezzlement of public funds.” The group reported Bardella to the authorities at the end of last year, and an investigation was launched. The alleged offences fuel strong suspicions of judicial harassment of a politician whose popularity is growing.
In December 2025, the association called AC Corruption filed a complaint against Jordan Bardella with the national financial prosecutor’s office concerning media training followed by the current president of the RN, based on information provided by the satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné, published at the end of November 2025, which claimed that he had undergone training provided by a media specialist, Pascal Humeau, during the 2022 presidential campaign. The training was financed by the European Parliament.
Pascal Humeau was reportedly hired to train RN elected representatives in the European Parliament, but the newspaper states that from September 2021 onwards, Bardella benefited from his services in preparation for the presidential campaign and not in connection with his European mandate.
On Monday, January 12th, the day before the start of Marine Le Pen’s appeal trial in the European parliamentary assistants case, the new national financial prosecutor, Pascal Prache, who had just taken up his post, confirmed that there was an investigation , “in conjunction with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.”
The facts are anecdotal in comparison to what the RN is accused of in the parliamentary assistants case, but the timing of the announcement of the investigation to coincide with the beginning of Le Pen’s trial gives the impression of a political targeting of France’s leading opposition party. The AC Corruption association makes little secret of its political motivation in this case. Its lawyer accuses the RN of “shamelessly plundering public funds to extend its hegemony.”
During his New Year’s address to the press Jordan Bardella announced that, before Christmas, he had filed a complaint for slander against the association, which he accuses of being “partisan, politicised and leftist” and of inventing battles in the name of “false ethics.” He claims to have absolutely nothing to reproach himself for in this case. The service linking the RN to Pascal Humeau is “a completely standard training service, in full compliance with the rules of the European Parliament,” and he points out that it was temporarily suspended during the presidential campaign to avoid any ambiguity. Bardella says he is confident, given the extreme caution shown by the prosecutor in this case still in its infancy.
The offensive against the young RN president, Marine Le Pen’s potential successor if she is prevented from running in the 2027 presidential election, is likely to prove counterproductive, given his popularity and the growing perception that the leading French opposition party is being deliberately targeted.
