Zero Hedge reports that Marine LePen of the unexpectedly popular National Front Party in France is now demanding that the French central bank repatriate its gold.
First Germany, then the Netherlands, perhaps Switzerland this weekend, and now the French right-wing Front National, which shockingly came first in May’s European parliament elections, and whose leader Marine Le Pen is currently polling in first place in a hypothetical presidential election (in both a first and run off round), ahead of president Hollande, has sent a letter to the governor of the French Central Bank, the Banque de France, demanding that France join the list of nations which have repatriated, or at least tried to, their gold.
Germany has been demanding its gold for quite some time. (With the help of the Bank of England, the US has basically refused, and managed to get the overly-polite Germans to back down.)
Then, we found out that the Netherlands repatriated a significant amount of its gold from the Fed:
AMSTERDAM—The Dutch central bank said Friday it is repatriating some of its gold reserves from the U.S., making it the latest central bank in Europe to address public concerns about the safety of its gold.
De Nederlandsche Bank, or DNB, said it is moving some of its reserves of 612 metric tons back to the Netherlands in an effort to spread its gold stock in “a more balanced way.” The measure could have “a positive effect on public confidence,” it said.
The goal is to keep 31% of its reserves at the central bank’s vaults in Amsterdam, compared with 11% previously. As a result, the central bank’s gold reserves held at the New York Federal Reserve will fall to 31% from 51%. Dutch gold held at central banks in Canada and the U.K. will remain unchanged at 20% and 18%, respectively.
In addition to this item, we might note that the Swiss gold initiative, if passed, would prohibit the Swiss central bank from storing its gold outside Switzerland.
