“We wonder to what extent we are not dealing with false testimony. “Two deputies, Stéphane Vojetta (French abroad, Renaissance) and Julien Bayou (Paris, Europe Ecologie-Les Verts), wish to seize the office of the National Assembly with a view to reporting to justice, following the hearing of Marine Le Pen as part of the commission of inquiry into foreign interference. Their analysis, which for the time being does not carry the enthusiasm of the majority of the office of this commission of inquiry, is as follows: they reproach the leader of the far right for having, during her hearing on Wednesday May 24, challenged the process of taking over a loan taken out in 2014 with a Russian bank.
This debt had been repurchased in isolation in 2016 shortly before the trusteeship and then the bankruptcy of the bank, before being transmitted to a company linked to the Russian military-industrial complex, which rescheduled it under advantageous conditions for the National Rally. (RN). The terms of transfer of this loan are shrouded in mystery. “I hear for the first time that only [this] loan would have been affected,” Marine Le Pen told the commission.
On the chronology of events, attested by the Russian deposit insurance agency and revealed by Agence France-Presse and Mediapart in 2017, she replied: “That’s wrong. For months, we paid money to a notary, at the request of justice, precisely because the bank had defaulted. The successive transfers took place afterwards. »
“Fancy Complaints”
“If I am aware, she is too”, retorts Julien Bayou, relying on the follow-up of this file, at the time, by the treasurer of the party, Wallerand de Saint-Just, and by a lawyer. Russian employed by the party. “These elements are factual. Either she is incompetent, because she is not aware, or there is a desire to hide, because this loan is coming into the hands close to the Kremlin. The company currently owning the loan, Aviazapchast, is run by former senior Russian military officials.
For Messrs. Vojetta and Bayou, these statements are possibly false testimony under oath, or perjury, and would require reporting to the public prosecutor through article 40 of the code of criminal procedure. Such a procedure can be exercised at the request of the chairman of the commission of inquiry, in this case the deputy Rassemblement national Jean-Philippe Tanguy, or that of the office of the Assembly, the highest collegiate body of the institution.
Contacted by Le Monde, Marine Le Pen reaffirms the version delivered to the commission of inquiry. She claims to have been unaware that the takeover only concerned the claim of the RN, and maintains that it intervened after the bankruptcy of the Russian bank: “It is false, the bank was obviously bankrupt. We were suggested to deposit the interest and we got a Russian lawyer, because our big worry was not being able to pay it back. Let them do their article 40! I have no problem with that, I am very calm. Mr. Bayou is a specialist in whimsical complaints. »
The rapporteur Constance Le Grip, for her part, refrains from commenting on the follow-up to be given to the report of the two commissioners: “At this stage, it is not for me to comment on this,” she said, noting “many evasive answers” from Marine Le Pen and other representatives of her party.