[objclxt]

> considering the ongoing total operational budget on a yearly basis for all of the facilities and support structure in Strasbourg

You're conflating parliamentary budget and staff with a campaign budget and staff. These documents came from his campaign, not a parliamentary office (be it EU or French). For obvious reasons the two don't mix. Campaigns generally operate on extremely restricted budgets, and are naturally transient in nature.

[walrus01]

okay, true, even so. In a nation the size of France I find it really doubtful that major political parties would go begging for the budget to hire infosec/netsec professionals, considering the amount of money spent on all the other expenses of a major campaign.

[ajdlinux]

Note that En Marche is a party that was specifically set up for Macron's presidential campaign in April last year - it's not one of France's established parties.

[literallycancer]

FN is financed by Russia, since other banks wouldn't give them a loan. And Le Pen is a contender in the second round so presumably it is exactly the case that major parties can have budget issues.