Several MPs and senators request a parliamentary inquiry commission on the National Gathering, after a report from France 2 on the links between this party and Steve Bannon, the former strategist Donald Trump.
A reaction to a special envoy sequence
Senators Rachid Temal (PS) and Nathalie Goulet (UDI), as well as deputies Jean-Michel Mis (LREM), Vincent Ledoux (Agir) and Bertrand Pancher (Libertés et Territoires), have confirmed they want to answer the call of the former Sarkozyist MP and Minister Frédéric Lefebvre, vice-president of the center-right party Agir, allied with the presidential majority.
All ask the constitution of a commission of inquiry on the links between the RN and Steve Bannon after the diffusion, Thursday, a report of Special Envoy in which one sees, in particular, the leaders RN Louis Aliot and Jérôme Rivière propose Steve Bannon to attend regular meetings between Marine Le Pen, the party's president, and senior French officials. The sequence obtained by France 2 is taken from rushes not used by the American documentary Alison Klayman, author of a film about Steve Bannon.
The RN wants to complain
Marine Le Pen, contacted, denounced "a poor little politician and electoral maneuver of a movement that is losing the first place in the polls", thus designating LREM, with whom the RN is neck and neck in head of voting intentions in the 26 May European elections. "There is absolutely nothing to reproach us," she lashed out, explaining that the group mentioned in the report is that of Horaces, a group of senior officials, business leaders and former members of cabinet ministers who anonymously advise the RN. Confirming the invitation to meet with Steve Bannon, she said the meeting did not take place.
The RN also announced its intention to file a complaint for defamation. "Despite the totally improbable nature of the accusations (...), the National Gathering can not let pass the rantings of Messrs. Lefebvre, Mis and Temal", reacted the party. "A complaint of libel and slanderous denunciation will be lodged against them in the coming days, and it is impossible to impute with impunity to the first party of France to commit these offenses".
Steve Bannon, a good advisor "to raise funds"
Another sequence taken from a meeting in London between Steve Bannon and Louis Aliot and Jerome River shows the American polemicist about the financial needs of the RN. According to Marine Le Pen, "Bannon offered his services to try to find a European bank to find a loan (...) which he also did not manage to do (...). It's just something where there is nothing to say. "
"There is no US funding organized by Steve Bannon for the National Gathering", then said Marine Le Pen on BFMTV, recalling that the financing of political parties from banks outside the EU were prohibited by law: "In contrast, Steve Bannon is very good advice for fundraising, which are needed from the French".
"He has no US funding organized by Steve Banon" says Marine Le Pen pic.twitter.com/ifNKpAtY7E
- BFMTV (@BFMTV) May 12, 2019An "intelligence with a foreign power"?
According to Jean-Michel Mis, a commission of inquiry should "shed light on this case, the object of which is similar to an international conspiracy against the interests of France". Rachid Temal wants, for its part, to check the possible existence of "intelligence with a foreign power" repressed by the Penal Code. Frédéric Lefebvre said he had launched his appeal on behalf of the International Observatory of Nationalism WNW (World Nationalism Watch), which he chairs.