France’s far-right party leader, Marine Le Pen has had no choice but to borrow €6 million to fund her election campaign after failing to secure funding from French banks.
Marine Le Pen managed to borrow from her father, who was kicked out after convicted several times of xenophobia and anti-Semitism when he said gas chambers were a “small detail” of the second world war.
Unlike other French parties, the National Front has been unable to find loans from French banks.
“French banks are playing a political role,” she said, suggesting her party was being unjustly marginalised because of its far-right programme.
“We have additional funding to find. We’ll find it,” Marine Le Pen told reporters. “It’s half (of what we need), but we’ll find it,”
“We’ll end up finding it. We will find one bank somewhere in the world that is willing to lend us that money,” she added.
FN Secretary General Nicolas Bay has agreed on the political behaviour of the banks, telling reporters French banks were acting in an “anti-democratic way”.
“Democracy would require banks to lend to all candidates.” he told reporters on Wednesday.
The maximum amount that political parties in France can raise for their election campaigns is 16.85 million euros for candidates taking part in the first round and 21.51 million for those taking part in the second round.
So far, opinion polls show the National Front getting through to the second round of the French presidential election with about 25 per cent of the vote, although the polls then show Le Pen losing to centre-right candidate François Fillon in the second round.
There is a lot at stake for Le Pen, who has changed the party’s image to broaden its appeal to voters before the election. Pollsters say has a good chance of getting through to the runoff vote for the Elysee in May.
Read more about Le Pen and her party here.