The Electoral Code of France prohibits any gifts, donations and promises aimed at influencing the vote as well as those accepting such gifts, donations or promises. In practice, misuse of administrative resources during the electoral campaign, following the parliamentary elections held on 10 and 17 June 2012, was not brought to the attention of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission. Nevertheless, France’s National Commission for Campaign Accounts and Political Financing (CNCCFP) underlines in its 2011 annual activity report that the Commission took 2,899 decisions of approbation with reformation of candidates’ accounts (for a total of accounts of 7,047 scrutinised). The accounts approved with reformation represent a bit more than 40% of all accounts (twice more than for the 2008 elections), which tends to demonstrate the inclusion by many candidates of costs qualified as electoral expenses that are not considered by the Commission as expenses for electoral purposes. These candidates’ accounts were approved mainly after reformation of the following expenses: interest rates, equipment, receptions, phone and communication costs. However, these rules are not always easily enforceable as it was observed during the campaign of the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012. In this case, France’s National Commission for Campaign Accounts and Political Financing estimated that Mr Sarkozy had to incorporate in his campaign expenses the cost of public meetings he had held in the province as part of his mandate of President, even if some of them were hold before he declared his candidacy. In July 2013, the French Constitutional Council rejected the 2012 presidential campaign accounts of Mr Sarkozy. Consequently, his Party (U.M.P) shall reimburse 11 million euros to the State. This case highlights that despite the existence of excellent instruments against any kind of abuse, it remains difficult to do a clear distinction between the use of administrative resources for the campaign of a candidate and the use of these resources by the incumbents in their official capacities.