Canadian Politics Today

Interesting read from the Washington Post about Marine Le Pen's National Front far-right party in France, and

Sometime in September 2014, the National Front’s treasurer, Wallerand de Saint Just, went to Moscow.

At the bank’s headquarters, he had lunch with Popov and his colleagues and signed a contract that lent the National Front 9.4 million euros at an interest rate of 6 percent per year. The final repayment date was Sept. 23, 2019.

De Saint Just described the process as “very amicable.”

At the time, Le Pen and other politicians from her party were making pro-Russian pronouncements in public but had not disclosed the loan.

The secrecy didn’t last long.

An investigative journalist at the French publication Mediapart exposed the deal 2 1/2  months after it was signed, setting off a firestorm of criticism and more reports from Mediapart and others about financial links between Russian individuals and the French far right.

Le Pen dismissed the furor, saying at the time that she had no choice but to turn abroad for a loan and denying that the money influenced her political positions. Le Pen’s party did not respond to a request for comment.

The loan was brokered by Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, a National Front member of the European Parliament.

Schaffhauser, for his part, said he received 140,000 euros, or about $181,000 at the time, for brokering the loan. His fee was deposited in what he described as a family foundation. He said people close to Babakov, the Russian member of parliament and special envoy, also discussed investing in his think tank.

At the same time, Schaffhauser was railing against sanctions imposed on Russia and promoting other pro-Russian positions in the European Parliament. He said he did not think that advocating for Russia while arranging a Russian loan to Le Pen’s party and a fee for himself presented a conflict of interest.

“What’s the problem? I have the right to be against this,” he said of the sanctions.

The problem, clearly, is that advocating for pro-Russian positions in the EU Parliament while personally enriching himself by brokering loans between his party and the Russian bank creates an appearance of conflict of interest.

The bank that originated the loan was shut down by Russian regulators, its licenses pulled, and its assets mysteriously evaporated before regulators could seize them.  The loan to Le Pen's party ended up being transferred to a Russian aerospace company that has official secrets status with the Russian government, meaning it might be beyond the reach of regulators. 



 -k