EU prosecutors search far right group offices in Parliament

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) carried out searches on Wednesday in the European Parliament premises of the Patriots for Europe group in Brussels and Strasbourg, the group said, and the EPPO confirmed by email that the searches were part of an ongoing investigation into the use of European funds by a former political group in the Parliament. The investigation concerns the Identity and Democracy group, dissolved in 2024, which the Parliament’s own reporting said improperly used 4.3 million euros between 2019 and 2024; the EPPO opened a formal investigation in July 2025.

Patriots for Europe, the Parliament’s third largest group, said it has no legal continuity with Identity and Democracy and is not involved in the ongoing investigation, though many staff moved from the dissolved group to the new one. France’s National Rally, whose leader Marine Le Pen leads polling for next year’s French presidential election, sits in the group alongside Hungary’s Fidesz, Italy’s Lega and Spain’s Vox, and the National Rally’s delegation head, Jean-Paul Garraud, criticised the timing of the searches on social media.