The National Commission for Campaign Accounts and Political Funding (CNCCFP) published, on Monday March 13, the full accounts of the three candidates who came out on top in the first round of the 2022 presidential election (Marine Le Pen, Emmanuel Macron and Jean-Luc Melenchon). The accounts, which it validated as a whole, were accompanied by numerous exchanges (as many questions, answers and annexes) between the CNCCFP and the candidate teams.
Marine Le Pen declared having spent nearly 11.5 million euros, as evidenced by the documents made public: hundreds of bank statements, thousands of invoices and the various contracts with service providers. These elements, which The world analyzed, shed light on the workings of the Remblement national (RN) candidate’s campaign, her financial difficulties, her networks on the far right and her strategy against her challenger on the right of the right, Eric Zemmour
An angel loan from Hungary
Before obtaining the Hungarian loan, in January 2022, the RN is conducting a minimal campaign, made up of small public meetings and wanderings in the markets. Despite the financial difficulties, the campaign headquarters, located in the party premises, has benefited from a complete makeover. Nearly 79,000 euros are spent on furniture and more than 160,000 euros on fittings. Less than 30,500 euros will be reimbursed by the CNCCFP, because the State is only intended to finance “the specific use of the premises for the presidential campaign alone”. In addition to these offices, the candidate rents for 7,500 euros per month an apartment facing the Champ de Mars, in Paris, where she leads the most strategic meetings.
It is in this ” refuge “as she calls him, which she signs with the emissaries of the Hungarian bank MKB, January 27, 2022, a loan of 10.691 million euros – the maximum amount reimbursed by the State to the finalists of the presidential election.
Three months earlier, the candidate had gone to Budapest, accompanied by MEP Nicolas Bay, privileged intermediary of the European nationalist allies of the RN, to meet the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban. An important patronage, because, according to the information from World, the banking sector of this country is close to power. As soon as the loan is signed, a first payment of 4.6 million euros is found in the campaign account.
A relief for the RN, as the Reims convention (Marne) approaches, a key campaign event, scheduled for February 5, 2022. More than 100,000 euros are disbursed for the rental of the room, to which is added the reservation of tens buses to take the activists. The convention must show that the defections of RN executives in favor of Eric Zemmour have in no way affected the dynamics of the campaign. “Like Z, you have to create a bottleneck at the entrance to get images of queues (…) worthy (…) Super Bowls,” advises Pascal Humeau, former BFM-TV journalist converted into media consulting, during a strategic meeting.
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