The national concentration is attacked by an investigation for loans granted by people to the distant part, said the Office of the Prosecutor of Paris on Wednesday, May 14. However, the investigation is not recent, it was launched in July 2024, after a report issued in 2023.
• What loans are we talking about?
The case was revealed in early May for the challenges of the magazine. The weekly economic reports that 23 people have granted loans repeatedly in the RN. The total amount is estimated at more than 2.3 million, which covers a period from 2020 to 2023. According to the newspaper, the RN is slow to reimburse its creditors.
These loans, described as “suspicious” by the weekly, are subject to a report issued in 2023 by the National Commission of Campaign and Political Financing (CNCCFP).
• What has been criticized exactly for the RN?
The people’s money loan is not illegal, the RN also regularly requests the generosity of its supporters to benefit from financial assistance.
However, these loans must respond to a series of rules, specified by the CNCCFP. “Natural persons can consent to a candidate as soon as these loans are not carried out regularly,” said the commission, which also specifies that “the duration of these loans cannot exceed five years.”
Another obligation, the parties have the obligation to reimburse these loans and send “every year” to the commission “a state of the loan refund”.
But according to the CNCCFP, “23 natural persons” have “lent sums to at least two different years and for an amount greater than 100,000 euros”, which could be considered as a loan “carried out in a regular basis,” prohibited by law.
• Where is the investigation?
If the opening of an investigation aimed at RN was not made public until Wednesday, the investigations have begun for months. In fact, after the report issued by the CNCCFP in 2023, the investigations were launched in July 2024.
The judicial information was opened on July 3, 2024 by suspicions of fraud to the damage of a public person, for false and the use of false.
Then the usual loans of a natural person to a political party, acceptance by a party of these loans, payment of annual donations greater than 7,500 euros by a natural person to a political party and acceptance by a political party of these donations, were extended in July 2024.
• How does RN react?
RN President Jordan Bardella said Thursday that “he discovered” the case in the press, he denounced a “harassment operation” and a “desire for financial death” addressed to his party.
“We are in the process of criticizing national concentration, to whom all banks refused to grant loans in the last presidential elections, particularly to have gone to look for loans to people, (which) are supervised, are subject to contracts and are perfectly legal,” he defended.
According to the challenges, Jordan Bardella responded to the CNCCFP challenging any irregularity and even denouncing an “abusive” reference by the prosecutor.
“There is no legislative or regulatory text to define the usual term,” he said about the rule that prohibits loans “for the usual.”
• Why does this matter particularly badly fall for the RN?
These investigations arise while the RN is in vagueness regarding its candidate or his candidate for the 2027 presidential election. Marine Le Pen, and a candidate three times, is the subject of a five -year judgment of inelegability with immediate request, after his conviction in March to four years in prison, including two farms and 100,000 euros of fine per fine.
The head of the deputies of RN was declared guilty of having paid parliamentary assistants who really worked for the party for European funds. She appealed, waiting for a decision before the 2027 elections.
This is not the first time that the RN has addressed a new financial survey. In 2024, the part was sentenced to a fine of 250,000 euros for concealment of the abuse of corporate goods in the “campaign kits” called.
It was criticized for having used a complex financial assembly to divert the reimbursements of the campaign awarded to its candidates for the 2012 legislative elections for its Jeanne Microparti.
According to an IFOP survey dated May 5, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella would significantly obtain the same score in the first round of the presidential elections, with between 32 and 35% of the votes according to the configurations, with a slight advantage for the MEP, given the elbow with the former prime minister and founder of the Horizons Edouard Philippe.
Source: BFM TV
