One of the two candidates for the French Election 2017, Le Pen faced accusations of speech plagiarism. The speech she delivered resembled that given by Francois Fillon only two weeks ago.
As soon as the conservative French Presidential Candidate gave her speech, a video surfacing on Twitter quickly highlighted the similarities between the speeches. The original address is given by a former Presidential candidate who got eliminated in the first round of French Presidential Elections.
Speech Plagiarism Comes as a Surprise
The critics of Le Pen saw this as an opportunity to attack her for speech plagiarism. Le Pen left her party temporarily to attract voters with different viewpoints. Le Pen repeated the same speech almost word for word.
In his speech, Mr. Fillon quoted French Prime Minister during World War 1 Georges Clemenceau and a writer named Andre Malraux.
The Agency France Presse asked from Florian Philippot, Deputy Chairman of Le Pen’s National Front Party about the speech plagiarism. Florian Philippot replied that she only took a short passage from an otherwise long speech on France.
Speech Plagiarism and References
Mr. Fillon has given references to France’s geography and the neighboring countries around it. In his speech, he termed the German border as promising, dangerous, and open.
Ms. Le Pen in her speech has called the German border as promising and open.
Both the speeches by Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Fillon gave references of waiting listings for learning French in cities like Rome, Rabat, Mexico, Tokyo, and Shanghai.
The speeches have used the same quotation by the World War I PM of France Georges Clemenceau.
Speech Plagiarism Poorly Effects Le Pen’s Campaign
Le Pen has a terrible start into the second round of the French Presidential Elections. Social media has quickly picked the similarities and made them public in no time.
Le Pen is already in the second place. Macron got 23.7 % votes in the first round of the French Presidential Elections, and Le Pen is behind with 21.5% votes.
Le Pen is in an awkward position due to her father’s legacy. She is fighting to get away from the image her father created for the party and struggling to attract the new voters with differing opinions.
Le Pen also talks about potential Frexit, somewhat similar version of France’s exit from the EU. On the other hand, Macron represents a more liberal, open, and well-integrated view of the French society. He is more open to different viewpoints and so far has been able to attract voter base from right, left, and center.
It remains to be seen how other party will use this speech plagiarism charge against Le Pen to try and win the French Elections.
