Marine Le Pen, four hours in Russia in front of the National embly

Marine Le Pen, president of the RN group in the National embly, during her hearing by the parliamentary commission of inquiry into foreign interference, on May 24, 2023, at the Palais-Bourbon, in Paris. CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

Good or bad idea ? The Macronist camp has long wondered whether it was appropriate to summon Marine Le Pen to the parliamentary commission of inquiry into foreign interference. After four hours of hearing, Wednesday, May 24 at the National embly, it is not certain that he has found the answer to his question.

Admittedly, the leader of the far right will have been forced to explain herself at length and publicly about the famous loan contracted in 2014 from a Russian bank, about her visits to Russia, about the trips of her deputies like “election observers at the invitation of Moscow, or on the atypical identity of its current creditor – a Moscow company of spare parts for aeronautics, civil and military.

But if the objective was to obtain a confession or to bring out the evidence of a Marine Le Pen under Russian influence, his political adversaries were at their expense. On the offensive, often peremptory and annoyed, sometimes mocking, the triple presidential candidate was able to recite a score already often played: no, she is not under the influence of any foreign power, or anyone else. ; yes, she considers that France should not alienate Russia and that the annexation of Crimea in 2014 was legal, whatever the international community thinks.

The hearing of Marine Le Pen was the last of this parliamentary commission of inquiry created in the fall of 2022 at the initiative of the National Rally (RN). The idea of ​​its president, the deputy (RN) of the Somme Jean-Philippe Tanguywas to draw a line under the trial in dependence on the Kremlin, fatal to Marine Le Pen during the debate between the two rounds of the presidential election of 2022.

Many hearings revolved around the loan of 9.4 million euros obtained from the First Czech-Russian Bank in 2014, at the end of a long process of rapprochement between the Lepenist party, with bloodless finances, and Russian power. No interview has been able to provide proof of a political service rendered in exchange for obtaining this loan. “If that had committed me to anything, I wouldn’t have signed. It’s clear ? »said Marine Le Pen, claiming to have never been the subject of the slightest attempt at foreign interference.

Support for the referendum in Crimea

Pale pink jacket, smile in front of the press photographers, cards spread out in front of her, the leader of the far right claimed to be delighted with her presence, which had not yet been requested by Jean-Philippe Tanguy.

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