French far-right political party National Front leader Marine Le Pen arrives to deliver a speech on May 1, 2016 in Paris | Chesnot/Getty Images Cash-strapped, Le Pen’s National Front appeals to 45 foreign banks Some banks resist lending to the far-right party.

PARIS — Marine Le Pen's National Front party has appealed to 45 foreign banks to help finance upcoming election campaigns, including her presidency bid next year, due to a major cash shortage, the party's treasurer told POLITICO Wednesday.

Wallerand de Saint Just said loan requests had been dispatched to the French offices of 45 foreign banks, including Barclays, JP Morgan Chase, as well as unnamed Chinese and Indian banks.

"When you add up departmental, regional, presidential and legislative elections, there are significant costs," said Saint Just. "We need about €25 million."

None of those banks had yet responded to the requests, he added.

Le Pen's anti-EU, anti-immigration National Front party struggles with chronic funding issues due to what officials say is resistance of French banks to lending it money.

In 2014, it scored a €9 million loan from a Russian-backed bank, but that only covered a fraction of projected campaign costs.

"They're going to end up in a situation where they are lending to Hollande and Sarkozy, but not to Le Pen — that's going to be problematic" — Wallerand de Saint Just, NF party treasurer

Le Pen is still about €25 million short of the €40 million she would need to fund her presidential bid next year and legislative elections shortly afterward, Saint Just said.

The party still hopes to obtain a loan from French bank Société Générale, which handles its day-to-day finances. Despite Le Pen's personal appeal to chief executive Frédéric Oudéa, Saint Just said that Société Générale had yet to show any willingness to lend, forcing the party to reach out to other lenders, including the same Russian-backed bank that loaned funds previously.

In 2014, Société Générale justified its refusal to lend to the Front by pointing to a campaign financing scandal at the center-right Les Républicains party, known as l'Affaire Bygmalion.

"They're going to end up in a situation where they are lending to François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, but not to Mrs. Le Pen — that's going to be problematic for them," added Saint-Just.

The Front needs bank loans mainly to cover major expenses. It finances some campaign costs and day-to-day operations from revenue streams including loans from Jean-Marie Le Pen's "Cotelec" fund, and the sale of campaign materials to potential candidates.

But financing remains a crucial challenge for the Front — and the source of several legal difficulties.

French prosecutors are investigating a case of suspected fraud linked to the sale of "campaign kits" to election candidates by a sister party linked to the Front. Investigators suspect that the sister party, which is named "Jeanne" and run by friends of Le Pen, deliberately overcharged for its campaign kits to increase the amount it would be reimbursed by the state after elections.

In France, any party that wins more than 5 percent of the popular vote in a national election gets reimbursed for most of its campaign costs.

The Front is also facing a probe linked to suspected abuse of resources at the European Parliament.

French investigators tipped off by OLAF, the European anti-fraud agency, are looking into whether the Front used assistants accredited at the European Parliament to work on election campaigns in France. Judicial agents earlier this year raided the Front's headquarters in Paris, as well as the home of Jean-Marie Le Pen, for clues.

According to a European Parliament source, OLAF officers also recently interviewed two accredited assistants linked to the National Front as part of the probe.