French prosecutors have said they are examining a report by the EU’s anti-fraud agency accusing far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and some of her colleagues of misappropriating thousands of euros’ worth of EU funds.

Ms Le Pen, 53, is a French lawyer and politician who is currently challenging Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the 2022 French presidential election.

However, opinion polls show that Mr Macron, who has been the president of France since 2017, is edging ahead in the run-off.

On Sunday, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced it was studying a report it received from the EU anti-fraud agency OLAF on 11 March.

The OLAF report claimed that Ms Le Pen had misappropriated €140,000 of public money with members of her National Rally party, diverting €617,000 in total, investigative website Mediapart wrote on Saturday.

Ms Le Pen and her colleagues are not accused of profiting directly, but of claiming EU funds for staff and event expenses.

Her office could not immediately be reached for comment.

French presidential election: Protester tackled to the ground and dragged from room after holding up picture of Marine Le Pen and Vladimir Putin

France presidential election: Emmanuel Macron faces far-right challenge from Marine Le Pen as voting takes place across country

Emmanuel Macron calls Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki ‘far-right antisemite’ after criticism of his Putin calls

Commenting on the reports, National Rally president Jordan Bardella told Europe 1 radio: “The French will not be fooled by attempts of the European Union and the European institutions (…) to interfere in the presidential campaign and harm Marine Le Pen.”

He said his party had filed two legal complaints against OLAF, and that it would be filing a third in response to the report.

Ms Le Pen’s lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut told BFM TV that his client denied the charges, adding she had yet to be questioned and neither he nor Le Pen had seen the OLAF report.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Ms Le Pen has been under investigation since 2017 as part of a probe into the alleged misuse of European Union funds to pay parliamentary assistants.

Pro-European Union centrist Mr Macron won the presidency in 2017 after easily beating Ms Le Pen when voters rallied behind him in the run-off to keep her far-right party out of power.

Last Sunday’s initial vote set up the same second-round battle, though France’s current president is facing a much tougher challenge with both sides desperate to court those who backed far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who came third in the 10 April first round with around 22% of the vote.

Related posts:

Italy’s PM brands Turkish president a ‘dictator’ as diplomatic row over chairs at meeting worsens EU regulator reviewing possible links between Johnson & Johnson jab and blood clots Instagram adds option to show pronouns on profile Husband of British woman killed in Greece burglary ‘begged robbers not to harm family’ Ryanair offers expenses-paid trips across Europe (for something in return) Dutch royals can marry same-sex partner and keep right to throne, prime minister says Soldiers break bricks, lay on glass and throw knives as North Korea leader Kim Jong Un smiles on ‘Small team’ of British troops deployed to Belarus-Poland border amid migrant crisis Putin shakes hands with Brazillian President Bolsonaro at Russia meeting – after making Macron sit 20ft away Russian troops appear to open fire on peaceful protesters in Ukraine Russia claims it attacked Kyiv shopping centre because it was being used to store rockets Russian forces partially occupy three suburbs of Kyiv as they look to encircle capital