French police on Wednesday raided the headquarters of the far-right National Rally party, party leader Jordan Bardella said in a post on social media. He described the operation as part of a "harassment campaign".

French police raidedMarine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) headquarters on Wednesday over alleged campaign finance violations andfraud, prompting its presidentJordan Bardellato decry a "new harassment campaign" against the far-right party.

The raid represents a fresh blow for theRNafter Le Pen was convicted in March of embezzling EU funds and barred from running in the 2027 election. The RN has becomeFrance's largest single parliamentary party, but still remains toxic for many due to its history of anti-Semitism and racism.

Read moreFrench far-right leader Marine Le Pen appeals conviction in embezzlement trial

Bardella broke the news of Wednesday's raid on X.

"Since 8:50 this morning, the headquarters of the National Rally, including the offices of its leaders, have been subjected to a raid conducted by approximately twenty police officers ... accompanied by two investigating judges," Bardella wrote.

The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed the searches, which it said related to a probe into an unnamed person opened last week following several reports from institutional sources. It said searches were carried out at the RN's headquarters, as well as at the head offices of several unnamed companies and at the homes of those companies' executives.

The probe involves acts that may constitute fraud against a public figure, loans exceeding campaign-finance regulations, regular loans made to a political party and the party's acceptance of them, regular loans made to a candidate during a campaign and the candidate's acceptance of them, aggravated laundering of fraud, forgery and use of forged documents between 2020 and 2024, Paris prosecutors said.

The alleged violations were related to the financing of campaigns during the 2022 presidential, 2022 legislative and 2024 European campaigns, the office said. No person or legal entity has been charged in the probe and the investigation is still ongoing, the office said.

Though the once-taboo RN has managed to improve its reputation, it has struggled to shrug off accusations of financial impropriety during its rise from a scrappy fringe outsider to one of France's most powerful parties.

On Tuesday, in a separate probe, EU financial prosecutors said they hadopened an investigationinto alleged misuse of 4.3 million euros ($5.04 million) by Identity and Democracy, a now-defunct far-rightEuropean Parliamentbloc that included the RN.

Le Pen aims to get her March conviction overturned so that she can run in the 2027 election, her fourth attempt at top office, but Bardella has said he will run if she cannot.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)

Originally published on France24