Viktor Orbán has publicly condemned Russia’s war and backed EU sanctions!!!

Marine Le Pen received loan from Hungarian bank with ties to Viktor Orban. French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen received a €10.7mn personal loan for her campaign from Hungary’s state-backed MKB Bank, whose largest shareholder is a close associate of premier Viktor Orban. 

The loan was declared on a disclosure form that French candidates must file with the elections regulator about their personal assets and debts, which was published online on Tuesday. Unlike other French political parties, Le Pen’s National Rally has long had difficulty financing campaigns because French banks will not lend to it out of concerns over reputational risk. The party worked with the government mediator on credit last year to try to remedy the situation, but failed to secure a loan in France.

“It’s scandalous that French banks will not lend to us,” Thierry Mariani, a member of the European parliament for the National Rally party, said last month. “We had to go abroad to find funds.”

According to two sources familiar with the matter, the decision to ask MKB to extend the loan to Le Pen came from Orban’s inner circle — signalling a high level of direct political influence at the bank. MKB has been about one-third state owned since a complex merger announced last year.

Asked about political influence over the decision, Orban’s spokesman Bertalan Havasi said: “That is fake news.” A bank spokesman declined to comment on the lending rationale.

The loan is listed on the disclosure form as having a term length of 16 months. Le Pen would likely be able to pay it back once her campaign costs are reimbursed by the state, which will occur as long as she clears 5 per cent of votes in the first round and files accounts with the regulator.

Gergely Gulyas, Orban’s chief of staff, was asked about the loan in February when French media reported that Le Pen had secured financing from a Hungarian bank.

“It is probably a good deal for any bank of the EU to issue credit which it is guaranteed to recover soon,” Gulyas said. “The freedom of services is a fundamental right in the EU.”

The National Bank of Hungary, which acts as the market regulator in Budapest, said a loan to a foreign political party or candidate would not contravene any local regulations. But several bankers said they saw the loan as problematic because of the political exposure.

Le Pen has long courted Orban and other populist or far-right leaders in Europe as they push their ideas about cutting immigration, protecting national identity, and opposing what they call power grabs by Brussels.

Le Pen has made multiple trips to Hungary in recent years, and met Orban in Madrid in January at a summit of far-right and populist parties. At her first big campaign rally in Reims last month, Orban appeared in a video message of support along others like Italy’s Matteo Salvini and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders.
French President Emmanuel Macron has invited his 26 counterparts from around the EU to meet in the famous Palace of Versailles just outside Paris this afternoon for two days of meetings, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominating events. The salubrious location had long been in the diary, but echoes of the famous peace settlement of 1919 when the allied victors in World War I settled the terms of the post-war European order will definitely be in the air, as Europe faces another war on the Continent.
#Versailles #France #Macron #Russia #Ukraine #Energy
Under the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Versailles Summit on 10 and 11 March will bring together the Heads of State and Government of the European Union, the President of the European Council, Mr Charles Michel, and the President of the EU Commission, Ms Ursula von der Leyen.

The Versailles Summit will address the war in Ukraine and the consequences for the European Union in terms of sovereignty.

[rumeunner]

Look at the weak little manlet that's known as Macron, he practically did soiled himself as Viktor approached him.

[eprohoda]

EU-How you doing?-super picture-see you on my side-

[winstonsmith-ministryoftru]

It looks like the dude wanted to take a dump.