PARIS, May 24 (Reuters) – Marine Le Pen defended herself on Wednesday of any closeness to the regime of Vladimir Putin during a parliamentary hearing where the deputy of the National Rally explained herself in particular on the loan contracted by her party with from a Russian bank.
For nearly four hours before the commission of inquiry into foreign interference of the National Assembly, the former candidate for the Elysee Palace justified his choice to resort in 2014 to a loan from a Russian bank to finance his movement. , then in serious financial difficulties.
Marine Le Pen explained the setbacks of her party at the time to find in France and in Europe a bank agreeing to lend her money.
After receiving positive responses in China, Iran and Russia, the loan of nine million euros was finally contracted with the First Czech-Russian Bank at a rate of 6%. It initially provided for the payment of interest every quarter and a repayment in one installment in September 2019.
Subsequently, the bank went bankrupt and was taken over by the Russian company Aviazapchast, and the National Front renegotiated the loan which “is intended to expire in 2028”, said Marine Le Pen, according to whom this loan constitutes the “only financial link” between his party and Russia.
Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, the MEP who concluded the loan, received according to Marine Le Pen 70,000 euros in commission and the equivalent in reimbursement of costs incurred.
The double finalist in the presidential election denied having given anything in exchange.
“The arrival or non-arrival of a loan has never changed one iota the position and the ideas [du Front national] in terms of geopolitics” she said, recalling in particular her support for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, following a referendum of attachment denounced by Kyiv.
“I am free from any influence and it is very bad to know me to think the opposite”, she declared, also recalling that at the time of the loan, “almost all” of the French political class sought to “improve relations with Russia, particularly on the economic level”.
“I DO NOT SIGN A LOAN WITH VLADIMIR PUTIN”
Asked about the proximity between the head of the bank that granted the loan with the Russian authorities, Marine Le Pen, a lawyer by profession, reacted strongly there too.
“I sign a loan with a bank, I do not sign a loan with Vladimir Poutine. Otherwise you, you signed loans with Emmanuel Macron”, she launched to the members of the commission chaired by the deputy RN Jean- Philippe Tanguy, where the debates were moderated on Wednesday by the vice-president, Laurent Esquenet-Goxes (MoDem).
“I did not ask myself the question of whether the president of the bank was close to Vladimir Putin”, also declared the one who met the master of the Kremlin in 2017.
Asked about this meeting, Marine Le Pen explained that she had requested this meeting and that the “fight against Islamic fundamentalism” had constituted “the main part of the conversation” with Vladimir Putin.
To a deputy who questioned her about “the Russian tropism” of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen replied: “I do not have a pro-Russian tropism, I have a pro-France tropism”.
The hearing of Marine Le Pen was the last of the commission of inquiry, which notably heard for five months Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, MEPs Thierry Mariani and Philippe Olivier as well as former Prime Minister François Fillon.
The rapporteur Constance Le Grip (Renaissance) is due to report in June. (Report Elizabeth Pineau, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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