On 1 May, Marine Le Pen had held a speech in which she repeated word for word some passages of a speech by failed candidate François Fillon.Pictured: on 23 April, the Rotondes in Luxembourg City organised an event at which they showed the results of the first round of the French presidential come in live. Maison Moderne

On 1 May, Marine Le Pen had held a speech in which she repeated word for word some passages of a speech by failed candidate François Fillon.Pictured: on 23 April, the Rotondes in Luxembourg City organised an event at which they showed the results of the first round of the French presidential come in live. Maison Moderne

On 1 May Le Pen, the French presidential candidate of the National Front, repeated several passages word for word from a speech that François Fillon, presidential candidate for the Républicains, had delivered in Puy-en-Velay on 15 April.

Fillon has lost the first round of the presidential elections; the second round is on 7 May between Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron.

In her 1 May speech, in the Parc des expositions in Villepinte, Le Pen wanted to show how important French culture and language were for her.

Contacted by Le Monde the same day, the director of Le Pen’s campaign, David Rachline, said that he was not aware of this plagiarism, or who the author of the speech was. Later, he stated that it “was a nod to a short touching passage on a speech on France, of a uniting candidate who is not sectarian”.

However, according to RTL, the plagiarism results from notes by Paul-Marie Coûteaux, who had written Fillon’s speech. Le Monde contacted Coûteaux, who stated that the notes came from one of his books, which he had “shortened” for Fillon. He also stated that he had not been contacted by Le Pen or by her speech writers recently.

You can see the whole video (simultaneous juxtaposition of the two speeches) here: