This is one less burden for the National Rally. The party announced on Tuesday that it had repaid its entire loan to the Russian company Aviazapchast, which had been contracted by the party with a Czech-Russian bank, which then fell into the hands of a totally Russian bank. The RN has thus reimbursed the remaining more than six million euros, according to a statement issued by the deputy of the Moselle and treasurer of the party, Kevin Pfeffer.
"Despite a final deadline scheduled for December 20, 2028, it is with an anticipation of 60 months that the National Rally honored the repayment of the ground of its loan for an amount of 6,088,784 euros," said the treasurer of the National Rally in his statement.
🚨The National Rally has repaid early its loan to the Russian company Aviazapchast ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/CxoHUx2iML
— Kevin Pfeffer (@K_Pfeffer) September 19, 2023
"This early repayment was made possible by the policy of savings, restructuring of its services, renegotiation of its contracts carried out for several years by the RN, by the results of the legislative elections of June 2022 and the concomitant increase in the annual subsidy of the State to the National Rally". Thanks to the arrival in June 2022 of almost 90 deputies at the Palais-Bourbon, the National Rally had thus "won" more than 10 million euros in public funding after its results.
A refusal by European banks
In its statement, the National Rally specifies "that this loan had been subscribed (in 2014) for the financing of his political activities and to ensure his participation in the elections" in the face of "the refusals of all European banks, first and foremost French banks, to grant him a loan at that time". After the bankruptcy of the Czech-Russian bank, First Czech-Russian Bank, with which the RN had initially signed, the debt was assigned to a Russian car rental company, Conti, and then sold in 2019 to Aviazapchast, a firm run by former Russian military personnel and specializing in spare parts for aircraft.
As we wrote last June, Kevin Pfeffer had set himself the goal of getting rid of this Russian loan. "We had to finish repaying in 2028 but I am doing everything to finish this year because it is a political argument used against us by our opponents," justified the elected representative of Moselle.
During the last presidential campaign, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, Marine Le Pen was attacked several times over this loan. During the debate between the two rounds of the 2022 presidential election, two months after the invasion of Ukraine, President Emmanuel Macron had estimated that Marine Le Pen was talking "to (her) banker when she talks about Russia".