As France's far-right National Rally celebrate their remarkable surge in popularity following the first round of snap legislative polls on Sunday, Marine Le Pen is also lauding the state of the party's finances as electoral gains also translate into financial gains for their coffers.
The RN, as France's second largest political party, receives the most public funding after Emmanuel Macron's presidential majority Renaissance party.
But that was before the first round of early legislative elections that took place on Sunday.
Because the number of ballots cast last in the RN's favour on 30 June, this will radically change the situation for Marine le Pen's party.
In France, political parties receive public funding – with a total budget of just under €66.5 million for 2024 – as set out in the France's Finance Act.
This sum is divided between the parties, half on the basis of the number of votes each obtained in the first round of the last legislative elections, and the other half on the basis of the number of members of parliament they have elected.
Coffers filled by high turnout
As a result – based on the 4.2 million votes the RN received in 2022 – the far-right party received almost €6.8 million in 2024.
A further €3.4 million should now be added to this sum for its 91 MPs, giving the RN a total of €10.2 million.
Within the current system, each vote earns €1.61 and each parliamentary member is pegged at €37,000.
With 9,377,297 votes cast last Sunday, the RN has more than doubled its 2022 score.
Marine le Pen's party is therefore guaranteed to receive more than €15 million a year until the next presidential and legislative elections taking place in 2027.
Thanks to the high turnout, the RN will receive almost twice as much as Macron's Renaissance has every year since 2022.
And that's not accounting for the windfall from its MPs.
According to projections, that will add up to between €9 million and €10 million.
When the RN becomes profitable
This windfall should enable Marine Le Pen's party to continue a debt reduction process that began in 2022, including money owed to Hungarian and Russian banks.
From being the most indebted party in France in 2021, with almost €27 million in the red, the RN has begun to balance its books.
According to the latest figures available from the CNCCFP – France's political campaign finances commission – the RN's accumulated debt was down to just €9 million in 2022, including some €6.5 million with credit institutions.
While this is a fine performance overall for the RN, it didn't not prevent the party from posting an deficit of nearly three million euros.
Whatever the final outcome of the second round of polls on 7 July, the snap legislative elections are well on the way to making the far right – for once – profitable.
