The candidate of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, obtained for her presidential campaign a loan of 10.6 million euros “from a European bank”, we learned Friday from the president of RN Jordan Bardella. This loan amounting to 10.6 million euros corresponds to the “authorized expenditure ceiling”, “the contract is signed and we have the funds”, he told AFP, confirming information from BFMTV. Acting RN boss and party treasurer Kevin Pfeffer announced the “good news” to their activists.
“This loan obtained, as you know, in a very difficult context of tougher campaign financing rules and the reluctance of banks to finance the democratic life of our country, will allow us to calmly approach the final stretch of the campaign. the two officials wrote in an email message to their troops.
Funds for the “5000 markets” operation
The loan will contribute in particular to financing the Reims convention on Saturday February 5, initially scheduled for January 15, as well as a “5,000 markets” operation with buses that will criss-cross the whole country, and public meetings, for a campaign “as close as possible of the French, without excess, but with a spirit freed from the constraints of fundraising”, they underline.
Marine Le Pen had “alert” President Emmanuel Macron to the difficulties of financing the presidential campaign, with candidates “faced with the virtual impossibility of finding financing” from banks. And who can no longer, since a law of 2017, borrow money from non-European banks. The RN, which is also heavily indebted, is struggling to finance itself from banks.
For the 2017 campaign, he had borrowed 6 million euros from the micro-party Cotelec of Jean-Marie Le Pen, and 8 million euros from a businessman, Laurent Foucher. The party then loaned these sums to the candidate Marine Le Pen. In 2014, for the regional and departmental elections, the far-right party had recourse to a Russian loan of 9 million euros, which it is still in the process of repaying, following a “rescheduling” obtained in 2020 from of its creditors, a Russian firm run by former soldiers, Aviazapchast.