The Paris Court of Appeal has condemned Rassemblement National (RN), Marine Le Pen’s far-right French party, to pay a fine of 250,000 euros as part of an investigation into electoral funding for the 2012 legislative elections. In the first instance, the party was sentenced to payment of a fine of €18,750.
In 2012 Rassemblement National, which at the time was called Front National, made its candidates buy electoral kits (leaflets, posters, websites) for 16,650 euros each from a communication company, Riwal, and through the mediation of a small party near Le Pen called Jeanne.
Riwal belongs to Frédéric Chatillon, also very close to Marine Le Pen, former leader of the far-right student union GUD and considered by the judges, in fact, a manager of Rassemblement National. Jeanne was instead created in 2010 precisely to finance the electoral campaigns of the Front National, in serious economic difficulties. But it has never really been a party: it has never had candidates or militants. It is a fundraising organization similar to those used by other politicians and other parties.
For example, during the 2011 election Jeanne provided loans at very high interest rates (6.5 to 7 percent) to Front National candidates for their electoral campaigns. In the 2012 legislative process Jeanne had instead provided a double service: cash loans and the compulsory purchase of the electoral kits produced by Riwal. According to the judges, the kit was sold for figures that did not actually correspond to the product supplied. The Court therefore concluded that the kit buying and selling operation had the objective of obtaining, illegally, a reimbursement from the State for the costs of electoral campaigns.