Paris (AFP)

The National Rally remains in the red and loses members, according to the accounts of the political party published Friday, while this party is convened in early June in Russia for a loan still unpaid.

The party chaired since 2011 by Marine Le Pen suffered a further loss in 2018 of 2.4 million euros, according to the party accounts drawn up on December 31, 2018 and published in detail by the National Commission of Campaign Accounts and political funding (CNCCFP).

This loss is lower than that of the previous year, marked by presidential and legislative elections, which amounted to 7.8 million euros.

The National Front (now National Rally) only presented surplus accounts for one year, in 2011, when it sold its seat - the Paquebot - to Saint-Cloud (Hauts-de-Seine), notes a ex-member of RN André Murawski, regional councilor of Hauts-de-France, who closely follows the accounts of his former party.

Staff costs (salaries + social security charges) notably represented 3.5 million euros in 2018 (compared to 4.6 million in 2017), for 53 employees.

The accounts also mention a cost reimbursement allowance of 60,355 euros to Marine Le Pen as president, with the provision of a vehicle and a driver.

Ms. Le Pen said Wednesday at a press conference Wednesday that the allowance was "subject to taxes" and that she "wanted to keep it completely confidential".

- Russian loan -

The member for Pas-de-Calais also indicated that she had an indemnity representative of mandate costs (now "advance for mandate costs", of a monthly amount of 5,373 euros, note) "very surplus", because she was "very careful" not to "mix (his) cap of movement president with (his) cap of deputy".

The party's debt at the end of 2018 reached 24.4 million euros, of which 15 million fell due in less than 1 year.

Among these debts are five million euros owed to suppliers, and 9.4 million euros from a Russian loan still outstanding (at an interest rate of 6%), which means that the RN is summoned before a Russian court on June 2 to explain it.

The RN told the CNCCFP that this loan contracted in 2014 was "being repaid", according to the observations of the auditors published on Friday.

These same commissioners also note "the absence of mention" of the state of the loans concerning a loan of eight million euros from a natural person, identified by Mediapart as Laurent Foucher, a very French businessman established in Africa. The party said it had "fully repaid" this loan before the end of February 2018, according to the commissioners.

- "Perfectly managed" -

Marine Le Pen's party also owes 4.2 million euros to the Cotelec micro-party of former FN president Jean-Marie Le Pen, who must be subtracted from the public aid allocated to the RN in 2020 as political party, around five million euros.

The finances of the RN were also weakened in 2018 by a judicial seizure, on annual public aid, of 1 million euros in the case of alleged fictitious jobs in the European Parliament.

The party is also awaiting judgment in April in the case of the financing of its 2012 legislative campaign, in which the French state has claimed nearly 11.6 million euros in damages.

On the revenue side, membership fees fell to 1.1 million euros, after 1.86 million in 2017. Considering that the average membership fee is 40 euros, the number of activists would have dropped from 46,000 to 27,000.

The contributions of elected officials also decreased to 919,376 euros in 2018 after 1.09 million in 2017.

"Taking into account our difficulties, banking, media, governmental, police, judicial discriminations of which we are the object, the party is perfectly managed", had assured at the end of January on RMC the treasurer of the party, Wallerand de Saint Just, who n did not wish to comment on these accounts.

© 2020 AFP