EU Prosecutors Raid Patriots for Europe Offices in Parliament Funds Probe
Investigators searched the group's secretariat offices in Strasbourg and Brussels as part of an inquiry into the alleged misuse of €4.3 million by its dissolved predecessor.
Investigators acting for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office searched administrative offices of the Patriots for Europe group at the European Parliament on Wednesday, part of an inquiry into the suspected misuse of EU funds by the far-right bloc that preceded it.
The searches began Wednesday morning and covered Parliament premises in Strasbourg and Brussels, according to statements from the group and the prosecutor’s office. Police entered the fourth floor of the Louise-Weiss building in Strasbourg, where the offices of the group’s secretary general are located.
The offices raided belonged to Philip Claeys, a Belgian who is the group’s secretary general. Claeys held the same job for the previous far-right bloc, Identity and Democracy, which dissolved after the 2024 European elections. He is a former member of Belgium’s Vlaams Belang party. Belgian police also searched his offices in Brussels.
The prosecutor’s office opened the investigation in July 2025 into the suspected misappropriation of EU funds by Identity and Democracy during the 2019–2024 parliamentary term. Parliament’s in-house finance service found that at least €4.3 million had been “unduly spent” by the group, according to an internal report. The case had already led to a wave of raids in France, Belgium, Spain and Italy on June 30.
Patriots for Europe said it was not the target. “Since this morning, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has been carrying out searches in administrative offices at the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg,” the group wrote on X, adding that it believed the searches were linked to the embezzlement probe against the former Identity and Democracy group. It said there was “no legal continuity” between the two groups and that it was not involved in the ongoing investigation. An official told AFP that no elected representative’s office was searched.
Jean-Paul Garraud, who heads the National Rally’s delegation in the Parliament, revealed the raids in a midday post on X and called them harassment. “While the streets of France are rocked by chaos, the priority of the authorities appears to be this,” he wrote. “No one should be fooled by such harassment.”
The prosecutor’s office confirmed the searches to reporters. “The EPPO can confirm that it carried out searches in the premises of the European Parliament in France and Belgium as part of an ongoing investigation into the use of European funds by a former political group in the European Parliament,” it said in an emailed statement. The Parliament said it was cooperating with the competent authorities, “as is customary.”
Patriots for Europe is the third-largest group in the European Parliament. Its members include France’s National Rally, Hungary’s Fidesz, Spain’s Vox and Czechia’s ANO. National Rally leader Marine Le Pen is ahead in opinion polls for next year’s French presidential election. The EPPO is an independent EU body tasked with combating fraud involving Union funds.
