The European Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into the far-right European Parliament group, Identity and Democracy (ID), a spokesperson confirmed to AFP.
The ID group, which ended in 2024, included members from Vlaams Belang and the French National Rally.
The political groups from the former ID group are suspected of having "unduly spent" more than €4.3 million between 2019 and 2024, according to a report by the Brussels institution's financial affairs department, revealed by several media outlets in early July.
Although the French party did not hold the presidency or the general secretariat of this coalition during this period, most of this sum reportedly went to two companies linked to people close to Marine Le Pen (RN): her former adviser Frédéric Chatillon and his wife Sighild Blanc.
According to a document, revealed by Le Monde, the programme Kontraste, the magazine Die Zeit and the Austrian weekly Falter, the communications agency e-Politic received €1.7 million after a "purely formal" call for tenders marred by "serious compliance issues" according to Brussels inspectors. They consider that "all these expenses (...) are irregular."
The same applies to the company Unanime, which made more than €1.4 million for printing work, which was subcontracted at a lower cost, with a margin estimated at €260,000.
Le Pen was previously convicted in a separate case involving European parliamentary assistants. At the end of March, she was sentenced to a term that makes her ineligible for any election at least until her appeal trial. The far-right leader announced on Tuesday that she had referred the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to challenge the ineligibility sentence.
Last week, Le Pen claimed to have no knowledge of the new case against her political family. "I don't know what it's about, I haven't looked at the file," she said on RTL.
The former secretary-general of the ID group, Belgian Philip Claeys (Vlaams Belang), also rejected outright what he called "incorrect allegations."
According to the weekly magazine Knack, the report also cites a Flemish student federation, the KVHV (Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudentenverbond), which is said to have received just over €30,000.
The non-profit organisation linked to the Ghent branch of the KVHV was registered until last year at the home of Vlaams Belang MEP Tom Vandendriessche, who is also chairman of the student federation's management board.
