In trouble over loans: Marine Le Pen struggles to finance election campaign

The far-right French leader, Marine Le Pen, is facing increasing difficulties in her attempt to raise funds for her presidential campaign next year, Reuters reports, via Patria.

As one of her party officials reveals, banks are persistently rejecting loan applications for her National Front for political reasons.

The General Secretary of the National Front, Nicolas Bay, told radio Europe 1 that he sought a loan of 27 million euros for the purpose of next year's presidential campaign "from the banking establishment in France, Europe, and elsewhere in the world".

Commenting on the fact that French banks rejected the loan requests, Bay said:

- This is discrimination based on political views.

Banks such as SocGen, Credit Agricole, BPCE, and Credit Mutuel did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while BNP Paribas and the French banking federation declined to comment. French media have in the past published letters from French banks rejecting loan requests from the National Front.

The results of the latest polls show that Marine Le Pen enjoys the support of about a quarter of French voters, but financing her campaign has long been a problem.

It was also revealed that in 2014, the party received a loan of 9 million euros from a Russian bank.

The possibility of Russian interference in elections in Western countries has become a burning issue since US intelligence agencies accused Russians of hacking the US cyber system to influence the outcome of the elections, which Moscow has denied.