Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s nationalist movement and one of two candidates remaining in the country’s presidential race, is a plagiarist—or at least one of her speechwriters is. The BBC reports that a speech of hers “seems to repeat one by beaten rival François Fillon” all but word-for-word.
• Mr Fillon’s speech: “Then there is the Rhine frontier, the most open, the most dangerous, also the most promising – a Germanic world we have been so often in conflict with and with which we will yet co-operate in so many ways” Ms Le Pen’s speech: “Then there is the Rhine frontier, the most open, also the most promising – a Germanic world we will yet co-operate with in so many ways, as long as we regain the relationship of allies and not of subjects”
• Both speeches refer to “waiting lists for the Alliance Française in Shanghai, Tokyo, or Mexico, for the French secondary school in Rabat or Rome”
• Both speeches quote World War One PM Georges Clemenceau, saying: “Once a soldier of God, and now a soldier of Liberty, France will always be the soldier of the ideal”
• Mr Fillon’s speech: “France, as I have said, is a history, it is a geography, but it is also a set of values and principles transmitted from generation to generation, as passwords. It is finally a singular voice addressed to all the peoples of the universe” Ms Le Pen’s speech: “France is also a set of values and principles transmitted from generation to generation, as passwords. And then it is a voice, an extraordinary, singular voice that speaks to all the peoples of the universe”