Marine Le Pen accused of plagiarising François Fillon in May Day speech

FRANCE - The far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has been accused of plagiarism after a speech to her supporters used phrases lifted from her conservative rival François Fillon.

The original speech, delivered by Fillon shortly before he was knocked out in the first round of the contest, was on the subject of France’s role in Europe and the world. Le Pen’s, made at a Front National May Day rally, was on France’s roots in western Europe.

The accusations came as supporters of her rival Emmanuel Macron warned that a high abstention rate could hurt his chances of victory in the second round vote on Sunday. Florian Philippot, the deputy leader of Le Pen’s party, said it “completely owned up” to the fact that the speech resembled one made by Fillon on 15 April. He told Radio Classique that Le Pen’s speech it was a “nod-and-a-wink” to Fillon’s earlier discourse in order to “launch a real debate” concerning French identity.

The similarities between the two speeches were mocked by Le Pen’s opponents on social media and French newspapers highlighted the borrowed passages. Le Pen mentioned France’s “three maritime borders” with the English Channel, North Sea and the Atlantic. That same phrase was also used by Fillon. Le Pen described France’s borders and ties with “Italy, our sister” – again a phrase used in Fillon’s April speech. She also used a quote from the early 20th-century French prime minister Georges Clemenceau: “Once a soldier of God, and now a soldier of Liberty, France will always be the soldier of the ideal.”

That Clemenceau quotation was used, word-for-word, by Fillon. Le Pen’s campaign manager, David Rachline, played down plagiarism accusations, painting her speech as a form of tribute to Fillon. The references were “appreciated, including by all of Fillon’s supporters,” Rachline told France 2 television. Just days ahead of Sunday’s run-off, Macron remains the frontrunner in the race with polls predicting a 19-point lead, putting the 39-year-old on track to become France’s youngest president.

But amid concerns in his camp that a high abstention rate could help Le Pen’s chances, company bosses, celebrities and scientific researchers called in newspaper editorials for people to vote for Macron, who styles himself as “neither of the left nor the right.”

(The Guardian/Photo:

IBTimes.co.uk)

The accusations came as supporters of her rival Emmanuel Macron warned that a high abstention rate could hurt his chances of victory in the second round vote on Sunday.