France’s far-right leader will not be damaged by judicial investigations, says party member

The far-right candidate in the French presidential election has been embroiled in two investigations, but that hasn't and will not impact her campaign, the Front National's project coordinator told CNBC on Friday.

The European Parliament lifted Marine Le Pen's immunity earlier this week, which allows French authorities to question her over the publication of aggressive ISIS photos on Twitter. At the same time, there are investigations into her party's alleged misuse of European funds. However, both cases do not seem to have impacted her polling numbers, as similar events did for other candidates.

"There will not be any consequence regarding the democratic evolution of the election because as you see the figures of Marine Le Pen regarding the polls are still very high despite all this judicial news coming from the European Parliament," Jean Messiha, Marine Le Pen's project coordinator at Front National, told CNBC on Friday.

He added that there's "a political agenda" behind these cases.

Most polls have indicated that Marine Le Pen will win the first round of the election. The latest projections point to about 26 percent of the votes for the Front National in the first ballot. However, they have also shown that she's set to lose the second round of the election.

Earlier in the campaign, polls showed Le Pen would lose to the conservative candidate Francois Fillon, but that has changed after he was caught up in an investigation for misusing public funds.

Several members of the conservative party have dropped out of Fillon's campaign this week. The candidate said at a press conference last Wednesday that authorities were investigating his alleged payments to his wife and two of his kids for work they didn't do, but he would continue running for office nonetheless.

An Odoxa poll showed that if Fillon would step down and be replaced by Alain Juppe, the conservatives could actually win the first round with 26.5 percent of the votes, ahead of the centrist Emmanuel Macron with 25 percent and Marine Le Pen with 24 percent.

However, for now the picture is looking brighter for Macron, the fresh face in French politics. The independent candidate is according to the latest polls set to win the second round of the election against Le Pen with about 60 percent of support.

Macron unveiled his manifesto this week where he promised to make public savings of 60 billion euros ($63 billion) and invest 50 billion euros over five years. The former investment banker and economy minister also vowed to keep the country's deficit below the 3 percent threshold.

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/03/frances-far-right-leader-will-not-be-damaged-by-judicial-investigations-says-party-member.html