"Marine Le Pen wants to be President of France." "Everyone on the right is behind her because she is our last chance to save the country." "After Brexit, after Trump, she wants to be the next shock to the establishment." "Marine presents herself as the new face of a patriotic mainstream, but the toxic legacy of her father still looms large." "We reveal controversial money men working behind the scenes." " We are talking about very radical ideas." " Such as?" " Anti-Semitism." "It's clear." "From Moscow to Trump Tower, we speak to fixers looking for loans." "Some of the people, they were there, they could have contributed" "$1 million without even, you know, blinking an eye." "And we ask, what is the true extent of her relationship with the Kremlin?" "THEY SING LA MARSEILLAISE" "Our story begins in Lyon, traditionally a bastion of the far right in France." "Marine Le Pen is launching her bid to become president of the republic." "What would you like her to change first of all in France, if she becomes president?" "To change?" "The first thing to change, immigration." "Riding a global wave of anti-establishment feeling," "Le Pen's popularity has surged." "She could top the poll in the first round of the election later this month." ""On est chez nouse." "We're at home."" "This is our country, that's what they're singing." "Marine Le Pen wants to ditch the euro, perhaps take France out of the EU." "She's anti-Nato, anti-globalisation." "But the subjects she's most vocal on are immigration, radical Islam and what it means to be French." "CHEERING AND APPLAUSE" "CHEERING AND APPLAUSE" "Le Pen aspires to lead a patriotic movement for the modern age." "But her party, the Front National, has a troubling past, with historic links to Nazi collaborators and violent, far right movements." "Meet the party's founder, Marine's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen." "He's a former foreign legionnaire, a veteran of France's colonial wars who's been fined for racism and Holocaust denial." "Since Marine took over from her father in 2011, she's tried to ditch the party's violent, racist image." "In her campaign videos, she's focused on issues of social welfare." "In French, they call this makeover dediabolisation " ""casting out the devil."" "She's dropped the name Le Pen from her campaign." "These days she is simply Marine." "Two years ago, she even expelled her own father from the party." "A troublemaker and provocateur who built a political dynasty that became synonymous with racism and anti-Semitism." "Marine Le Pen has put in place this process that she calls dediabolisation." "What do you make of that?" "This is the tension in the Front National, between the old radicals and the modernisers." "To win the election," "Marine Le Pen knows she needs to broaden her appeal." "In the town of Frejus on the south coast, Front National activist" "Sonia Lauvard and her group of supporters are helping her do just that." "Every Sunday morning, they walk the local markets speaking to shoppers." "Marine Le Pen..." "Their efforts to detoxify the brand seem to be working." "Marine Le Pen's party now controls 14 town councils nationwide." "In Frejus, the local mayor is also Marine Le Pen's presidential campaign manager." "The things that people fear about you is that you're anti-Semitic, that you're Islamophobic." "But Le Pen's efforts to detoxify the party haven't persuaded the" "French establishment." "And that's left the Front National desperately short of money." "The Front National needs around 20 million euros to fund its campaigns this year alone." "But because of its racist and anti-Semitic past," "French banks won't lend it money." "So Marine Le Pen's financing options are limited." "She's already had to go crawling back to her father, whose toxic reputation she'd rather people forgot about." "Recently, he arranged a six million euro loan for the party." "Some of the other characters Marine Le Pen has turned to for money wouldn't look out of place in a spy thriller." "Frederick Chatillon, rabble-rouser turned slick businessman, whose client list has included Bashar al-Assad and Brigitte Bardot." "We spotted him at Marine Le Pen's campaign launch." "What's he doing to talking to senior party figures?" "It turns out he and Marine are old friends." "Here's Chatillon rallying his supporters in the early '90s when he was leader of a far right student group known as GUD." "It was more or less a gang, it was just between a political movement and a street-fighting gang." "At the time, they changed from a traditional anti-Communist movement to something more radical - so-called anti-Zionism, which in fact is merely a code word for anti-Semitism." "Mr Chatillon came to the attention of French intelligence." "His file from that time lists his activities, including a Nazi salute." "In this note, you can find all the meetings that" "Chatillon did in this time." "You can see "Hitler salute", so Nazi salute, in '90." "During a meeting, you can see he met Leon Degrelle, which is..." " Who's this former SS officer." " Exactly, exactly." "You can see that he's linked to the skinhead movement in Paris." "Today, we're told Frederic Chatillon is part of what's being described as a "secret cabinet" around Le Pen." "He's absolutely a key player for the economy of the party, the networks of the party." "In all these meetings I saw this man, close to Marine." "This is Aymeric Chauprade." "He quit the Front National after helping two French pilots charged with drug smuggling escape the Dominican Republic." "Until then, he was Marine Le Pen's foreign affairs advisor." "He says he clashed with her secret cabinet." "We are not talking about classical conservative ideas, we are talking about very radical ideas." " Such as?" " Anti-Semitism." "It's clear." "Obsessed by the Jewish power, very anti-Semitic, very radical." "Does Marine Le Pen share those views?" "I don't think Marine Le Pen is anti-Semitic, and I'm not sure that Marine Le Pen is really independent from these people." "But if she doesn't share these views and she is trying to detoxify the brand, why would she keep them around?" "I have absolutely no explanation - rational explanation - because rationally speaking, she should have fired them because they are very radical people." "The explanation, it seems, is follow the money." "If you look through the accounts for the Front National's campaigns, you'll find thousands of receipts, but what's weird is that so many of them are from just one company." "It's called Riwal, and its director is Frederic Chatillon." "The Front National told us Mr Chatillon is nothing to do with the party, that Riwal is just a supplier of campaign materials - posters, leaflets, websites and smartphone apps." "But the authorities have been investigating." "The first element of this investigation is the roles that Riwal is playing with Front National." "According to French justice, Riwal is acting like a bank." "Prosecutors say the Front National, Riwal and Frederic Chatillon have been complicit in a mutually beneficial scam involving fraud and misuse of public funds." "Because Marine Le Pen did not manage to get financing from French banks," "Chatillon, with his agency Riwal, is acting like a banker, in a way." "So, despite the talk of "dediabolisation" - detoxification of the party - one of Le Pen's key money men could be a man who's been linked to skinheads and former Nazis." "There's no sign or anything to tell you that Mr Chatillon's company is based in this unassuming building on a quiet backstreet." "This is a company, run by an old friend, that's absolutely central to the functioning of Marine Le Pen's campaigns." "'We wanted to ask Mr Chatillon about all of this." "'We spotted him, again, 'with a colleague outside the campaign launch.'" "Not keen to talk." "Neither he nor the Front National replied to our letters, either." "A bigger question perhaps is Le Pen's relationship with Russia." "Moscow never hid its enthusiasm for Donald Trump." "Now, just weeks before the election," "Marine makes a surprise visit to the Kremlin." "CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICK" "She meets the man suspected of subverting the US presidential race." "MARINE SPEAKS FRENCH" "Was that a smirk on Mr Putin's face?" "Madame Le Pen seemed not to notice." "She spoke out against the EU sanctions on Russia he desperately wants lifted." "Two days later, Russian police broke up an opposition protest." "Up to 1,000 people were detained." "Nothing to do with Le Pen's visit, but this is life in Russia under Vladimir Putin - a leader she says she admires." "Marine Le Pen's path to the Kremlin has been years in the making." "It was her father who laid the groundwork." "He came here almost immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and began making contacts on what was then a newly emerging Russian nationalist right." "One of the people Jean-Marie Le Pen met back then was Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a die-hard nationalist who once said that the bells of the Russian Orthodox Church should ring out from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean." "This really is the godfather of Russian nationalism." "Many of his anti-Western ideas were once marginal." "So was the Front National." "Now, the Kremlin sees both as allies in its quest to undermine the EU." "But there's more to this relationship than ideology." "Remember, the Front National is in desperate need of money." "In her search for funding," "Marine Le Pen has hired fixers with Russian connections." "One of them calls himself "Mr Mission Impossible"." "Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, a former consultant-turned-MEP, whose contacts range from" "Vatican insiders to Russian spies." "Since Putin was in charge," "I was working with Russia." "I have information for France in Russia about who is who." "In 2014, Mr Schaffhauser brokered a loan worth nine million euros from a bank with links to the Kremlin." "These were turbulent times." "Russia sent forces into Crimea then annexed the territory through a referendum." "The EU responded with sanctions, but Marine Le Pen publicly defended Moscow, raising suspicions that the money was a quid pro quo." " Did you ever have any discussions..." " It was... ..with Marine Le Pen about Crimea and the situation in Ukraine..." " No, no." " ..in regard to the loan?" "I'm trying to understand whether there was ever any suggestion that" "Marine Le Pen's position on Russian politics, on Crimea, Ukraine..." "But you have to look in history, you have to look in history." "Always, Marine Le Pen, and Jean-Marie before, was for this cooperation with Russia." "They don't change it." "It was not a political loan, it was a "commercial" loan." "But Russia did want to use Marine Le Pen to legitimise their annexation of Crimea." "We know this because hackers published a text exchange apparently from the phone of a Kremlin official to a Russian MP." "Well, I've got the text messages here, and we can see on the 17th of March they say..." "Back comes the answer..." "Then..." "What did they mean by that?" "HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN" "I contacted the Russian MP in the text exchange." "At first, he agreed to speak to me." "But then he stopped answering his phone." "There were two loans, totalling 11 million euros - one from that bank with links to the Kremlin, the other through an oligarch accused of helping to finance" "Russia's war in eastern Ukraine." "For me, there is no doubt it was authorised by the Kremlin." "The special operation, the special recommendation and the request of those "businesspeople" - in brackets - to help Marine Le Pen, they are in the Kremlin's hands, like instruments, just undertaking one or another specific orders," "specific operations." "The Kremlin told us it had nothing to do with the loans, but in Russia, business and politics are intertwined." "Absolutely, sure." "If the Kremlin say, "Never!"..." " It wouldn't have happened?" " Yes." "So just to be clear, without the approval of the Kremlin, it wouldn't have happened?" "I think." "I think." "So, what is Le Pen's relationship with the Kremlin?" "In public, she has denied meeting Mr Putin before this recent visit to Moscow." "Here she is speaking to Newsnight just last week." "But we've heard something different, and not just from anyone." "Vladimir..." "Voila." "THEY LAUGH" "'When we met Marine's father back in February, he let something slip.'" "'To be clear, this was before the public meeting 'in the Kremlin last month." "'Others who were close to Marine Le Pen told us the same thing.'" "She told me that she met Putin, but I do not have proof." " But she told you personally?" " She told me, she told me." "But the Kremlin told us" "Marine Le Pen and Vladimir Putin never met before." "Someone is lying - but who, and why?" "I understand that she DID meet Putin." "This is a secret." "What can I say?" "Did she tell you that she met Putin?" "All the discussion cannot be..." "There are little secrets, and this secret, I don't know this secret." "Secrets are secrets." "Last week, it was revealed the Front National applied for yet another Russian loan in 2016." "Marine Le Pen maintains she has never been influenced by Russian money." "But the mystery of her relationship with Putin casts a shadow over her campaign, amid fears about the Kremlin's attempts to interfere in elections from Europe to the United States." "The victory of Donald Trump brought an unexpected shift in the political landscape." "A week before the inauguration, Le Pen popped up in Trump Tower." "No big deal, apparently." "But what was she doing huddled in the cafe?" "The visit was arranged by this man." "Guido Lombardi - friend of the European far right, and also friend of Donald Trump, AND his neighbour." "He organised a fundraising cocktail party for Le Pen." "I spoke to him via video link." "We have between 35 and 40 guests, in my apartment, at Trump Tower." "Some of them, they were Americans of course, from Wall Street." "Some of the people, they were there, they could have contributed" "$1 million without even blinking an eye." "We don't know whether Mr Lombardi's friends lent Le Pen any money, but through him, Marine Le Pen now has a direct link to the President of the United States." "I talk to Donald personally, I talk to Steve Bannon," "I talk to, you know, Priebus, I told all of them," ""She's coming, she's coming in my place."" "What did Donald Trump say?" "He say, "Oh, I like her."" "Donald Trump wasn't at the cocktail party, though we've been told Le Pen or members of her team met with friends of Trump at a later, private meeting." "But it seems Marine Le Pen herself is still too toxic even for Donald Trump." "I would be the first one to tell Donald, "Don't meet her."" "The connection is still too fresh, even though she kicked her father out of the party, but it still somehow is the party that her father started." "Some people, it seems, just don't buy the idea that the party of Le Pen has really changed, and that includes some on the very extremes of the far right." "In Paris, we met a group called" "Dissidence Francaise." "They describe themselves as white nationalists and fascists." "Hear that?" "Get that?" "'This small group isn't affiliated with the Front National." "'But their slogan, les notres avant les autres " "' "our people before other people" - is borrowed word for word 'from one of Marine Le Pen's from the last presidential election.'" "Who are you voting for and why?" "For Marine, of course." "Pretty much everyone on the right is behind her, because she is our last chance to save the country, so, yes, of course, we support her." "Dissidence Francaise believe there is a Zionist-led conspiracy to commit what they call "white genocide"" "by flooding Europe with immigrants." "In an attempt to prove her point," "Electre took me to a nearby Paris neighbourhood." "When you look around here, you barely can see a white person." "Demographics, the numbers are talking, and they will be taking over in less than 20 years." "Europe is not going to be white or European any more, it's going to all look like here." "That was the language of the old Front National, but some of Electre's views are closer to Marine's rhetoric." "These people hate us, so they can go away." "It's the only solution." "Do you think Marine agrees with you on that?" "I think she agrees but she cannot say it." "Maybe one day she will." "The Front National says such views have no place in the modern party, and yet Marine Le Pen apparently gives off enough far-right pheromones to attract people like Electre." "AUDIENCE CHANTS" "Polls suggest Le Pen will make it through the first round of the election this month, into the second round run-off in May." "A movement that was once on the fringes now stands on the cusp of power." "Even if she fails in her bid for the presidency," "Marine is part of a changing political landscape." "But for all the talk of dediabolisation, the Front National is still the party of Le Pen, and the devil is in the details."