RN MEP Valet says party is still struggling to secure €10.5 million bank loan for presidential campaign
Rassemblement National MEP Matthieu Valet told franceinfo on May 9 that the party is still struggling to obtain a €10.5 million bank loan to finance Marine Le Pen or Jordan Bardella's presidential bid, despite polling at 35 percent. He pressed Emmanuel Macron to deliver the "banque de la démocratie" promised a decade ago, accused his Algeria diplomacy of yielding nothing on the detained journalist Christophe Glaze, and dismissed a European Public Prosecutor inquiry into the RN's use of EU funds for Bardella media training as a politically motivated "fake news" attack.
Matthieu Valet, a Rassemblement National Member of the European Parliament, used a May 9 appearance on franceinfo's "La politique s'éclaire" to confirm that the party has so far failed to secure a €10.5 million bank loan to finance its presidential campaign. "Aujourd'hui, nous avons des difficultés à avoir un prêt," Valet said, adding that the RN still hopes to find a French lender willing to back what he described as a solvent borrower. He cited Marine Le Pen's second-round qualifications in 2017 and 2022 and current polling around 35 percent as evidence that the loan would be repaid.
Asked about Crédit Mutuel chairman Daniel Baal's proposal that the state either guarantee or advance funds to overcome lender hesitation, Valet pivoted to Emmanuel Macron, demanding that the president honour the "banque de la démocratie" he had pledged a decade earlier and never created. He compared the unfulfilled banking pledge to two other Macron-era promises he said had fallen short: 15,000 new prison places, of which "barely more than 5,000" will be delivered, and a 100 percent OQTF execution rate that he put at "not even 10 percent."
On Algeria, Valet attacked Macron's diplomatic reset, including the French ambassador's return to Algiers and the defence minister's presence at Friday's Sétif massacre commemorations. He said the priority should instead be the release of French sports journalist Christophe Glaze, "incarcéré illégalement et arbitrairement" in Algerian prisons for a year. Valet said the Assemblée nationale's vote to denounce the 1968 Franco-Algerian accords had produced no effect, and called for revisiting the 1986 Franco-Algerian social-security agreement, the Évian accords and Algerian diplomatic passports before any negotiation.
Valet seized on Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez's disclosure this week that some individuals under OQTF orders had been returned to Algeria, contrasting it with Bruno Retailleau's tenure, during which he said no Algerian removals occurred. Of the 21,000 OQTF orders against Algerian nationals in 2024, only "100 et quelques" were actually executed — a figure he called derisory. Retailleau, he said, "tried to copy us but did not equal us," because Macron blocked the standoff Retailleau wanted to mount.
On the new European migration regulation entering into force this summer without national transposition — which permits up to two years of detention for removable individuals deemed dangerous, allows execution of an OQTF in another EU member state, and creates third-country return hubs — Valet credited Jordan Bardella for assembling right-wing and patriotic MEPs around the text, alongside François-Xavier Bellamy. Pressed on the RN's vote in committee but not in plenary, Valet denied the charge and said the group reviews each vote in detail with Bardella as group chair to keep its line consistent.
Valet dismissed the impact of Florian Philippot's announced presidential candidacy, saying the RN would campaign on its own ideas and that Philippot held no current mandate. Of his potential rival Bruno Retailleau, he said: "Si Monsieur Retailleau pique nos idées, tant mieux."
He spent the closing portion of the interview rejecting the European Public Prosecutor's investigation, opened after a complaint from the association AC!! Anti-Corruption, into allegations that the RN used European parliamentary funds to pay for media training for Jordan Bardella during the 2022 presidential campaign. Valet called the accusers "des menteurs," said the contracts had been booked under European Parliament rules on European subjects, were validated by Parliament services, and were interrupted before the 2022 campaign. He singled out Tristan Berthelot, who he said had moved from Libération to Le Canard enchaîné, and accused Macron of "verrouiller le système administratif" by appointing allies to the Conseil d'État and the Cour des comptes out of fear that the RN will reach power.