France's far-right leader Le Pen to file discrimination suit against SocGen, HSBC banks

Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-23 00:08:33|Editor: yan
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PARIS, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Marine Le Pen, the head of France's far-right National Front (FN) party, said Wednesday she would lodge a complaint against Societe Generale and HSBC banks for closing her personal and party accounts.

"We will file a complaint for political discrimination. I appeal to our party's members, to my 11 million voters, and more generally, to all French people who defend democracy, to draw all the consequences of this banking fatwa of which we are victims," Le Pen told reporters.

"After being the victim of massive judicial persecution, we are witnessing a new stage in the persecution of the National Front: banishment from banking," she said.

Le Pen, an advocate of nationalism, said the move was "an attempt to suffocate an opposition movement" and denounced the fact that "financial oligarchies who feel protected, even encouraged by a kind of impunity, are therefore tempted to intervene more and more in the course of democracy in France."

The FN leader said that French bank Societe Generale had asked the party to close its accounts, while HSBC's French boss Thomas Vandeville told her earlier in the day that the personal account she had held for 25 years was being closed "without any justification."

In a statement, Societe Generale, one of France's main banks, said its "decisions on opening or closing a bank account depend purely on banking reasons and in respect of all regulatory requirements, without taking into account any political consideration."

Le Pen, who lost the French presidental race in the spring, repeatedly spoke out during the campaign about French and foreign banks' decisions to not award loans to her party.

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