The leader of France’s nationalist and far-right political party, Marine Le Pen, has seen her momentum stall in the runup to Sunday’s vote with her previous links to Russia resurfacing in recent days.
Le Pen obtained 23.1% of the votes in the first round of the French election on April 10 — coming second and earning her a place in the final runoff this Sunday against incumbent President Emmanuel Macron, who received 27.8% of the vote.
The Macron and Le Pen face-off is a repeat of the 2017 election, but this time around the early polling suggests that she has a better chance of defeating him.
But, in a key TV debate Wednesday against Macron, Le Pen was accused of being “dependent” on Russia and political commentators said that she failed to land any major blows on the French president. A poll out Thursday suggested that Macron will win the second round with 55% of the votes, with Le Pen on 45%.
During her election campaign, Le Pen’s team reportedly had to bin thousands of campaign leaflets that included a photo of her shaking hands with Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin. Her team said that a typographic error had been the cause of the scrapping, not the photo.
Macron told Le Pen during the two-hour debate Wednesday: “When you speak to Russia, you are speaking to your banker,” according to translation. Back in 2014, Le Pen’s party (National Front which has now rebranded as National Rally) reportedly requested loans from Russian banks including from the First Czech Russian Bank — a lender that is said to have links to the Kremlin. Le Pen rebuffed the accusations Wednesday, saying: “I am a completely free women.”
She added that her team is paying the loans every month and that she only borrowed from Russian banks because no French lender would lend money to her party.
Earlier this week, Russia’s opposition leader Alexei Navalny — in prison since returning to Russia last year after being treated for a poisoning attack — urged French voters to support Macron and alleged that Le Pen was too closely linked to Russia. Macron’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire also warned against Le Pen’s policies on Thursday, telling CNBC’s Charlotte Reed that France would look to withdraw from Europe if she came first on Sunday.
