Le Pen’s opponents accuse her party, the National Rally, the largest opposition formation in the National Assembly since the 2022 legislative elections, of being an agent of Russian influence in France.
The French far-right leader in the National Rally Party, Marine Le Pen, denied before the National Assembly any “rotation in the orbit of Russia,” stressing that she would not have expected the loan that her party obtained from Russia, if it had political conditions.
“If it required me to anything, I would not have signed,” Le Pen said in a four-hour hearing before a parliamentary commission of inquiry into foreign interference. Payment is still in progress.
Le Pen, the losing candidate in the second round of the two presidential elections, in which her rival Emmanuel Macron won in 2017 and 2022, continued, saying: “I sign a loan from the bank, I do not sign a loan from (Russian President) Vladimir Putin.”
The Parliamentary Investigation Committee charged with examining foreign interference was launched by the National Assembly Party at the end of 2022, in an attempt to block these suspicions, noting that other formations consider the committee an attempt to divert attention.
