The National Front in France has applied for a €27 million loan from Russia to help it to fight presidential and parliamentary elections next year, the party’s treasurer has said.
The loan request follows claims that €11 million worth of loans to the far-right party from Kremlin-owned institutions in 2014 was a reward to Marine Le Pen, the party’s leader, for her support of President Putin’s Ukraine policy.
The US and European intelligence services have sounded the alarm this year over what they see as a drive by Mr Putin to finance populist, anti-EU parties in Europe in order to sow strife in Brussels. Wallerand de Saint-Just, treasurer of the National Front, said that the party had been forced to go abroad for its campaign