It was an alarming sight. On Tuesday, with the eyes of the French press fixed on ceremonies to mark President Emmanuel Macron’s long-awaited cabinet reshuffle, Paris police conducted a series of morning raids against the country’s most prominent opposition party.

Not only did police forces search the headquarters of La France Insoumise (LFI; “France Unbowed”). They also raided the home of its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon; the homes of several parliamentary assistants; and the office of the Left Party, a small party tied to LFI. The official reason for the searches: two ongoing police investigations spurred by the country’s anti-corruption authorities. One concerns the use of European Union funds reserved for European parliamentary assistants; the other, the financing of the 2017 presidential campaign.

Nobody from La France Insoumise has been formally charged with any wrongdoing. And police raids on prominent political figures are, in fact, somewhat common in France: former prime ministers François Fillon and Dominique de Villepin and former government spokesman Jean-François Copé have all been subject to them in recent years. Still, they are no small matter, and La France Insoumise’s leaders reacted as such — with gusto and with moral outrage.