The National Rally (RN) announced on Tuesday September 19 the “early” repayment of its loan to the Russian company Aviazapchast. The press release was published a few hours after Le Figaro revealed the information. “It’s a relief given the political argument that this simple loan had become,” RN treasurer Kévin Pfeffer told the daily.
“Despite a final deadline scheduled for December 20, 2028, it was 60 months in advance that the National Rally honored the repayment of the balance of its loan for an amount of 6,088,784.00 euros – capital and interest included,” further attests the far-right party in its press release.
The contract “was transmitted in 2016, by Russian justice, in a manner completely independent of our will, to the company Aviazapchast S.A, a company with which the RN has honored its quarterly deadlines since September 2019,” deplores the party.
“This early repayment was made possible by the policy of savings, restructuring of its services, renegotiation of its contracts carried out for several years by the RN”, further believes the National Rally.
In 2014, the RN took out a loan from a Russian bank, the First Czech Russian Bank, to finance its campaign for the 2015 regional and departmental elections. A loan of 9.4 million euros that the party had to repay until 2028 from the creditors of the bank, which has since gone bankrupt.
Jordan Bardella’s party assured, in its press release, that “this loan had been taken out to finance its political activities and to ensure its participation in the elections” because all French banks had at that time refused to grant it a loan.