French Far Right Gets Helping Hand With Russian Loan
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Version 0 of 1. PARIS — France’s far-right National Front party has taken an $11.7 million loan from a Russian bank to help finance various campaigns — money, officials said, party representatives were unable to obtain from any French or European bank, though they spoke to a dozen. In the meantime, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder and retired leader of the party, has also taken a separate $2.5 million loan from a holding company belonging to a former K.G.B. agent, according to a published report. Officials of the party said the $11.7 million loan would be used to help the National Front’s coming local and regional election efforts as well as a run for the French presidency by the party leader, Marine Le Pen. That campaign appears already underway, though the vote is still more than two years away. In recent days, Ms. Le Pen has openly acknowledged the loan, saying that it was not a secret and that the party had nowhere else to turn. “What is scandalous here,” she said, “is that the French banks are not lending!” The money appears to be yet another sign of growing closeness between Europe’s far-right parties and Russia. Ms. Le Pen has been steadfast in her admiration of Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, even as France’s and indeed most of Europe’s relations with Russia have frayed over events in Ukraine. She has proposed breaking France’s relationship with NATO’s command in favor of a new alliance that would include Russia. Her father, Jean-Marie, has long had ties to Russia’s ruling officials. In recent years, Le Pen family members have been frequent visitors to the Russian Embassy. Some analysts say that Marine Le Pen is an even more attractive ally to the Kremlin these days as she is doing well in the polls. The National Front’s chief financial officer, Wallerand de Saint-Just, said the party needed substantial amounts of money for campaigns and might return to the lender in Moscow, First Czech Russian Bank, for more as it would need a minimum of $50 million. He said the party was paying 6 percent interest, which suggested it “was no special favor.” In the past, he said, the party borrowed from French banks, most recently from the Société Générale. But those banks were no longer interested because of corruption scandals and overspending by Nicolas Sarkozy’s party, the Union for a Popular Movement, during the 2012 presidential campaign. Mr. de Saint-Just said he had been steered to the Russian bank by a National Front member of the European Parliament who had “connections with Russians.” He said that he spent four months meeting with bank officials to negotiate the loan. Mr. Putin might have had a hand in the deal, he said, but if so, that was not obvious to him. “It’s hard to know,” he said. “What I did understand was that Russian banks are very controlled by the central bank.” The National Front has always had a hard time raising money. In the past, it has ended campaigns millions in debt, once even having to sell a headquarters to close its books. While the loan made headlines in France, only a few politicians spoke out against it. The head of the Socialist Party, Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, said: “Why is Mr. Putin playing the Marine Le Pen card? There is a very simple reason. She wants to get out of the European Union, triggering its destruction and weakening France.” He added, “She is a chess piece in Mr. Putin’s strategy.” The loan to Jean-Marie Le Pen was first reported in Mediapart, an investigative news website, on Saturday. The website said the loan was from an obscure Cyprus-based holding company called Vernonsia Holdings Ltd. via a Swiss bank account. The holding belongs to Yuri Kudimov, the former K.G.B. agent, who ran another Russian bank, called VEB Capital, according to the website. That bank, the website said, was considered the financing arm of the Kremlin. The holding company loan, signed on April 4, was to an association created by Mr. Le Pen long ago, called Cotelec. In the past, Mr. Le Pen used the account to make loans to the National Front when it was in debt, Mr. de Saint-Just said. Efforts to reach Mr. Le Pen were unavailing. But in Mediapart, he acknowledged the loan and said he would not discuss the interest rate. “What I know is that it is a Cypriot company,” he said. “That there are Russians in Cyprus, that is possible. What would be surprising and abnormal about that?” He added: “I am dealing with a company called Vernonsia Holdings which has agreed to lend me money. The way it gets that money is none of my business.” |