French banks refused to issue a credit for the election campaign of Marine Le Pen
The leader of the National Front (FN), Marine Le Pen, is facing difficulties with financing her campaign for the upcoming presidential elections in France. As the politician herself has said on BFM-TV, she currently lacks about €6 million in funding needed to run a successful campaign.
"No French bank has agreed to issue a loan for me to conduct an election campaign," the politician said.
The FN leader noted that "French banks freely lend money to other parties. I regard this as a political gesture from the French financial institutions. This says a lot about the level of democracy in our country," Le Pen stressed.
In such circumstances, the FN is forced to seek financing outside France. "I addressed my request to a number of European, American, and Russian banks," said Le Pen. However, she did not specify which financial institutions she was talking about exactly.
This is not the first time that FN candidates have been forced to seek funds abroad. In 2014, Le Pen obtained credit from the First Czech-Russian Bank in the amount of €9 million to finance her campaign. This caused a serious controversy in France, although it did not prevent the FN from seriously strengthening its political position at the regional and departmental elections.
At the same time, Le Pen emphasized that the loan was granted on "common terms. The means of funding the party were received absolutely legally," the FN leader stated at that time.