EU Parliament demands far-right group return €276,967 for misused funds

The European Parliament has ruled that the far-right Patriots for Europe must give back €276,967 in EU funds it says the group misused during the second half of 2024, according to a confidential report seen by POLITICO.

An audit by the Parliament’s finance department found the group made improper donations, breached procurement rules and awarded contracts through irregular procedures, notably in tenders for services to France’s far-right National Rally, which were granted to companies with close ties to the party.

Other Patriots members include Austria’s Freedom Party, Hungary’s Fidesz, Spain’s Vox, Belgium’s Flemish Interest, and Czechia’s ANO 2011.

The probe follows the finance department’s finding that the now-defunct Identity and Democracy group misspent €4.3 million between 2019 and 2024. ID remained active until the June 2024 European Parliament elections, after which many of its members and staff regrouped under the Patriots banner.

According to the report, officials discovered irregularities in the Patriots’ accounts covering the period between July 16 and Dec. 31, 2024. The findings conclude the group donated €54,620 to local and regional organizations — a practice prohibited under Parliament rules, which require expenditure to be linked to political activities at the EU level.

Associations promoting French and Flemish traditions and heritage, a Martinique-based futsal organization, a tennis club in Guadeloupe, an Italian group that promotes the Fiat Panda car model, health-related NGOs, several rugby associations, and a Guadeloupean organization that holds quad-bike competitions all received funding from Patriots.

The report also found the group did not follow the rules when awarding three public tenders worth €197,258. Of that total, €146,444 went to e-Politic — a communications firm that Le Monde reported was headed by a former National Rally official, and which provided services for the National Rally for years.

Officials found “irregularities relating to the signature of contracts and payment files raising serious concerns regarding the procedural regularity of the entire tender process and adherence to the principles of sound financial management.”

The audit also flagged €25,200 spent on advertising in a political magazine run by a former member of Austria’s Freedom Party. Parliament deemed the expenditure irregular, arguing that the magazine effectively lives off funding from the Patriots and its predecessor the ID group, and that the payments amount to a camouflaged subsidy.

According to a note by Parliament Secretary-General Alessandro Chiochetti attached to the audit report, the misspent money is due to be recovered from Patriots’ 2025 funds. The group created a cash reserve after Parliament’s administration uncovered nearly €4 million in irregular spending by ID and launched a follow-up audit into post-election spending during the second half of 2024 at the request of MEPs on the budgetary control committee.

The committee is asking the Parliament’s administration to recover the €4 million from the Patriots, but the group is declining to pay, arguing it has no links to ID — which is a separate legal entity — and threatening to take the matter to court.

In April, Transparency International asked the EU anti-fraud agency to open an investigation into ID’s former Secretary-General Philip Claeys, who is the current secretary-general of the Patriots.

“The ‘Patriots’ have violated the rules of the European Parliament and misused taxpayer money. This is not a mistake, it is a years-long practice. Simply repaying the funds is not enough,” said Greens lawmaker Daniel Freund, a member of the budgetary control committee. “The European Public Prosecutor’s Office must investigate and determine exactly what happened to the money.”

The Patriots group did not reply to POLITICO’s request for comment by the time of publication.