Le Pen is being widely ridiculed for copying, word-for-word (mot pour mot) whole passages from a François Fillon speech of only a few weeks ago. The debate tomorrow night between the far-right Le Pen and center-left Macron is expected to be confrontational, just ahead of this weekend's French election.

And you don't need to understand French at all to hear the similarity, as it's quite blatant.

Source: The Guardian

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.