On the same day, the European Parliament's legal affairs committee voted to lift the immunity of Le Pen, which allows French prosecutors to undertake legal actions against the presidential candidate for tweeting images of killings by the terrorist of Islamic State (IS, outlawed in Russia) in December 2015. The decision has to be confirmed on a plenary session of the European Parliament on Thursday.
"Clearly this schedule was composed specially to benefit Hollande’s candidate. The government is supporting Macron because he is an heir to Hollande," Philippot said in an interview with the BFM TV channel.
Le Pen is currently seen by the polls as the winner of the first round set for April 27. However, she is likely to cede to either of the two other top candidates, Macron or Fillon, in the run-off scheduled for May 7. Macron and Fillon are projected to win respectively 58 and 61 percent of votes in the second round if they run against Le Pen.
