Paris (AFP)

The National Rally (RN), convened before a Russian court on the non repayment of a loan, does not exclude to appeal again to the French to finance, said Friday its vice-president, Jordan Bardella.

The RN will have to explain itself on June 2 before a Russian jurisdiction whereas according to documents consulted at the beginning of February by AFP, a Russian firm attacked him in justice for not having repaid this loan of 9.14 million d euros contracted in Russia in 2014.

If the RN, already weakened by other debts, had to repay this loan, its finances would risk plunging into red, while its president Marine Le Pen has already announced that she was a candidate in the presidential election of 2022.

Jordan Bardella assured LCI that the RN had "started to reimburse" and that the summons to the Russian court was part of "normal procedure in Russia". "After a certain period, he explained, when you cannot repay your creditor or have not repaid to the sufficient extent, there is indeed a procedure which begins."

In this context, "we will probably have to turn to the French as we have done in the past (...) it is a decision that we will study", he added, saying "shocked "that" the first party in France does not find a French bank to finance itself during the elections ".

In the spring of 2019, on the eve of the European elections, Marine Le Pen's party had launched a "patriotic loan" which had then enabled it to raise 4 million euros, to deal with the refusal of the banks to lend it money. money.

Jordan Bardella assured that the functioning of the party "is not affected", nor "the will to present us in a certain number of municipalities (in March) and lead the combats" of the following polls.

"Membership is going up, our movement is going well, our movement is getting better," he said.

Asked at the beginning of February to know if the repayment of the Russian loan could put the RN in suspension of payment, its treasurer Wallerand de Saint-Just had replied that the creditor had "no interest to continue in this way since he sees that reimburse him. "

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