Milan, 9 July. (LaPresse) – ‘Since 8.50 this morning, the headquarters of the Rassemblement National – including the offices of its leaders – has been the subject of a search conducted by around twenty armed and bulletproof-vested officers from the Financial Brigade, accompanied by two investigating judges.’ This is what RN president Jordan Bardella wrote in a post on social media. ‘All emails, documents and accounting records of the leading opposition party have been seized, without it being clear at this stage what the precise charges are on which these measures are based,’ Bardella added. ‘We only know that all files relating to the latest regional, presidential, legislative and European campaigns – i.e. all the party's electoral activity – are now in the hands of the judiciary.’ ‘This spectacular and unprecedented operation is clearly part of a new campaign of harassment. It is a serious violation of pluralism and democratic alternation,’ he concluded. ‘Never has an opposition party been subjected to such persecution under the Fifth Republic.’