of course we took some lines used by francois fillon. we admit that. there you go. there were some things about france we wanted to use. quoting the former candidate is a surprising move from the far right party who previously thought to distance themselves from what they referred to as the establishment. with less than one week until the final run off of the presidential election, a could be seen as an attempt to appeal to supporters of the former candidate. laura: german chancellor angela merkel is in sochi for talks with russian president vladimir putin. on asay they want to focus unresolved conflict in ukraine and syria, areas of major disagreements for the two countries. merkel's it is angela first visit to russia in two years. it's a message designed to send a diplomatic signal. there differences in the conflict in ukraine and syria that vladimir putin has expressed a desire to normalize ties. there's an important role to be played to find a solution to global problems. the leaders say they agreed on the need for a full implementation of the minsk agreement, a

they speak french the man on the right was francois fillon, who was eliminated in the first round ofago, so now that speech a couple of weeks ago, so now marine le pen stands accused of plagiarism. she has not responded directly but her campaign manager has played down the issue, saying it was a nod and a wink and saying it was a nod and a wink and saying it was appreciated by francois fillon and his supporters, no doubt. this is up close and personal as it gets. you're watching marine le pen addressing an audience. we are in the bunker of a hotel and i am whispering because i don't want to be talking louder than marine le pen. she needs every single vote she can get. about an hour ago, she referred to the speech we just heard, and she said this was a deliberate nod to francois fillon, nearly two minutes of exactly the same words, because, she said, ultimately, journalist would not have paid any attention she had not done, so the world is talking about it and they are talking about her policies in fact, there is much more that she said that people will have ignored, but they picked u

yesterday, supporters of francois fillon may have noticed something in the may day speech from marineech from marine le pen, notjust the same sentiments but using exactly the same words! put the two speeches side—by—side commuter need to speak french, it as badly as i do, you will see how remarkably similar they are our! —— they are. do you think we could soon have a quiz question, what does marine le pen have in common with melania trump? laughter that is it, it causes the similarities between the republican convention last year, that happened there. —— it calls for. this would be really embarrassing were it not for the fact that there was clearly smart thinking, in front nationale thinking, because it has been said, this was intentional, he owned up to it, what we are trying to do is show francois fillon long's supporters that we think the same. i suspect it did not start out that way! they changed it, but that is the intention, anyway. do you think there is strategy in there? in a sense, they want to do what happened in the us, the populist left, supporting bernie sanders, a lot of

francois fillon, had many problems. ry, very weak socialist party with francois hollande at the bottom in terms of polls. that was something for him. and he understood what the country needed. he was someone different, someone young, someone people were not scared of. being different and being reassuring for a lot of people. charlie: he ran a good campaign and a good debate. >> he ran a very efficient campaign. it is just the beginning for him, but it is impressive that 39. charlie: elections come, when? >> in june. charlie:? what does it say about france >> two things. -- charlie: what does it say about france? >> two things. in france,able right with --group together against le pen. they said we cannot advance the cause of a politician with whom we do not agree. they set it on the day of the first round. that is a huge thing. fillon is as distant from macron ideologically as marco rubio is from hillary clinton. but instead of saying remaining with my family on the right, he said, no. the republican values are more ideo

francois fillon has some direct link to him and which is speech came out.e was talking about how france's place in the world is to be on top. it is absolutely word for word. but she is telling people is that was a deliberate reason to get attention. macron is steady in the polls, 60% to 40%. this is her trying to get the last minute vote. they're just a few days until election day. bestshe says she is the position to talk to donald trump or theresa may, but she is behind in the polls? explains why am speaking to you in such a tightly packed hotel. she goes into a head-to-head tv debate tomorrow. those on the opposition, critics might say, she is talking tonight to say you cannot say this party is racist. shewill talk about what forgotten french peerages says it is her battle against radical islam. her vision for france is different than macron. -- shelking about limit is document limiting immigration. this is perhaps a warm-up for tomorrow's debate. tim: thank you. you are watching bbc "world news america." stories, more than 30 civilians and kurdish fighte

and of course francois fillon had this familyjobs and of course francois fillon had this family jobsad this familyjobs corruption scandal hanging over him. a lot of people we re very hanging over him. a lot of people were very bitty about what happened in the republican party. we will hear from in the republican party. we will hearfrom some of in the republican party. we will hear from some of them tonight. the political winds of fortune have been blowing all the way for emmanuel macron. what do you mean? he has been very lucky throughout. he has come right through the middle, largely because of the corruption investigation... but also because during both primaries this is the most left and the most left—wing and the most right—wing candidates that have been chosen, and that also left a big space for the centre. that is why once again this is probably the right guy at the right place at the right guy at the right place at the right moment. there was an alignment of planets, so to speak, that is unique, but exceptional circumstances sometimes give rise to exceptional people. and he pr

for example, the conservative presidential candidate francois fillon is accused of paying his wife andhildren for fake jobs, and he's under investigation over the misuse of public funds. hanane: this is legal fraud. can't he put any money aside on a salary of 8000 euros a month? we're hardly rich ourselves. i earn minimum wage. my mother doesn't work. but we manage to make ends meet, to help others, and to put money aside. reporter: hanane feels that she has been prevented from climbing the social ladder. and yet she really tried to -- she was good at school, went to university, studied to become a lawyer. hanane's now a social worker. she and her colleague go about the neighborhood, trying to keep order and sort out disagreements. she says that she didn't have the right contacts for a law career. hanane: some people won't give you a chance. it's a vicious circle. whether you have an education or not, you don't get work. i needed a good contact, but i didn't really know anyone. so i ended up cleaning houses, working in sales, even though i had a degree. reporter: hanane is an exception

francois fillon of divisions now.ke today you see the divisions based on the different protest. i was at herjohn marine le pen rally this morning. there were people there signing up to his particular view of france and those here have a very different view, they were all have to pick a side at they were all have to pick a side at the elections on sunday. the danger for emmanuel macron is he doesn't necessarily get all of the people who marched here. everyone here is against marine le pen but that the does not mean they are in favour of emmanuel macron. i asked our correspondent hugh schofield how serious the may day clashes were. they were, in the scheme of things, not that bad. you get used to this confrontation at the end of rallies here. anarchist types on the fringes engaging in stonethrowing and tear gas is classic and will be forgotten very wea kly. gas is classic and will be forgotten very weakly. what are we seeing the two candidates doing in terms of scooping up the votes of all people who didn't vote for the

exactly, the voters that supported francois fillon, the centre—right candidate, are very hesitant of problem, because fillon was campaigning on the margins of the radical right. i think there will be a lot of voters of fillon who will vote for marine le pen. interesting, it is a new phenomenon that the two major parties have been knocked out. effectively you have an independent candidate emerging from the centre. and, of course, a well—known right—wing candidate. i suspected to be closer than what people have been predicting. but we are into new politics these days. an independent could become president. and the youngest president ever? a situation, a country like america, the position of president of france is a hallowed position in the eyes of the french. for a man of that age to become president is extraordinary. it would be another thing to have legislative power behind him, we would not know that untiljune. it's an interesting point, when you look at trends globally, trump being the guy that is going to time to clean out the swamp, brexit being a vote against the old order, macr

francois fillon was more radical and on the piece of paper it is easy to do it.ency that we have to another one — it will take years, but we are convinced it is good for france. i wonder why you are so understanding about the limitations now, when three years ago, in october 2014, you wrote in the financial times very dismissively of prime minister valls proposals of exactly the same sort? paris, you wrote, "plans to shave £50 billion off public spending, equivalent to 4% of the total, but it's not in any hurry. making the savings would take three years. if there is something exceptional in france, it's the attitude of denial in which all the political parties have la psed." an attitude of denial, i would suggest, of which emmanuel macron, a former minister in president hollande‘s government, is as guilty as the guilty men and women who you have condemned in the old system? wow — is it a court or a broadcast? you are judging another country with very severe words... i'm judging you on your own words, ms goulard. that's what you wrote three years ago, and suddenly

these allegations against francois fillon, he would have been a favourite for centre—right and his expensesnd salaries are now under the microscope and that effectively led to the fact that he fell out of the race and did not make it through to the second round. i think it is fair to say when the scandal broke, the state job scandal, he would've been a shoo—in, for fillon. he had a formidable vehicle behind him help, he took over as sarkozy as head of the party and he was hugely popular. everybody was absolutely convinced that he was going to be the next president and all of a sudden, this scandal broke out which has to do with the effectively self enrichment and i think that is what made an awful lot of difference in the minds of french people who, let's be honest, i used to be corruption of the political class of france, either on the left or on class of france, either on the left or on the right, but the difference was, unlike others who also got criminal charges against them for all sorts of corruption with the party, it had to do with enriching the party and not themselves and i think

francois fillon won the vote here, but with him out of the picture it could go either way.ssy is there. we spoke with him earlier. here we are in the north—west of france in an area famous for it champagne but also for textile industry. famous brands like lacoste come from here. this is a conservative stronghold but marine le pen has come first in the first round in the whole of the region, with the regional score of 30.3%, which gives you a bit of an idea what may happen on sunday. she clearly has a strong lead in this region. how are people bad feeling about the debate on the run—off, the second—round of the election? —— how are people there feeling? we were at the local market and people were saying they have not decided what to votes on sunday, they will be waiting for the debate to decide. depending on the performance of either candidate. it is interesting to note that 15 years ago whenjohn marine le pen ——john marine le pen was in the final againstjacques chirac, chirac refused to debate with him because he said there is no debate to have with the far right. it is the

they probably would have preferred francois fillon, but they probably wouldn't have wanted to work withmeant serious trouble here in france. emmanuel macron is a banker so he knows the world of finance, that is perhaps a positive thing. but he wants a stronger europe, a more reformed europe, and an integrated europe. he doesn't want to let brighton threat that. macron' economic credentials —— he doesn't want to let brexit sat on that. his economic credentials was a big part of his campaign, one in four adults don't have up for full—time job, and there was high unemployment. the question is what can he actually do about france's high unemployment rate — one in four young adults in this country don't have a full time jobs. i've been speaking to pierre gattaz, head of the employers' association medef. people will trust, business people like me. we trust the fact that this guy is moving france into the right direction. the business community might trust, will the people? so many times before, we have seen presidents take on difficult issues like pensions and labour were formed, and then the

the system, a former banker, a former economy minister in the deeply unpopular government of francois fillonnge anything in the minds of the people? they will find out because both of them are on the election campaign, and james reynolds has been to the north with marine le pen. marine le pen, here in brittany, finds herself targeted by both accusations and protesters' eggs. the eggs may be easier to dodge. critics accuse her of failing to discuss her programme during last night's debate, a charge she denies. translation: the french people know my programme very well, that is because it is very clear and i have been presenting it to them for several years. i wanted to lift the veil, and i believe i did that successfully, on who mr macron is. here, in amiens, her message goes down well. 76—year—old claude tells me life needs to change. translation: there is no work any more, there is no money any more, i have grandchildren who don't have jobs, i have a kid who doesn't have a job, we're in a real mess and it has to stop. this is post—industrial france, the front national‘s heartland. this is m

was a exact copy of one given just days before by her former rival, the mainstream republican, francois fillona solid lead in the polls, but he still needs to convince many of those on both the left and the right that his candidate is worried and worry about attacks to a woman nearly 25 years his senior. >> translator: i felt a huge fear in this country about the future of families, and am i an enemy of families because mine is different? i'm not ashamed of it. >> on wednesday the two met face-to-face for one last time ahead of sunday's vote, only two weeks after the latest terror attack and security was among their battle grounds. >> we have to eradicate the ideology of islamism. that is something which you wouldn't do because you're subjected to them. we have to strengthen the resources of the police and we to do this before the attacks had committed. >> reporter: on sunday the french will vote and that will have consequences beyond the country's own borders. i think the reason the american presidents current and form remember taking such an interest is in a sense, this is a continuation of

their favorite was francois fillon, who was defeated in the first round of the presidential election.n attempt macron andnces with the reality is the differences between france and russia on key issues, syria and ukraine, that this was always going to be difficult. matt: why did putin go? it was a late scheduled meeting, he didn't have to show up, right? henry: it was an opportunity for try and establish some personal chemistry. i think that is the way he looked at it. you mentioned they exchanged barbs at the conference, that is true. if you look at putin's regular behavior, he was quite subdued. he kept a lid on himself and avoided open confrontation. he was trying his best to establish some relationship with macron. matt: thanks, politics and international news reporter henry meyer out of moscow. principal russia analyst, thank you for your time this morning. why do think an important -- a relationship with macron is important to vladimir putin? hasraditionally, france been -- not an ally in europe -- but the most sympathetic listener in europe for russia traditionally. this has go

loss of value us -- of people's savings, that has been an impediment of winning over voters of francois fillonre too many things on immigration and things like that, but voters tend to be -- have savings and just don't want to risk any adventures with a new currency. it is a major impediment for her she has soften her views, but doesn't want to give it up completely soaked is in a rather confused thing right now. two currencies, a frankfurt daily spending, a common euro used for big transactions. no one really understands what she is on about. guy: if it is the money in your wallet, you take that seriously. the prime minister being so important, are people talking about this? give us a sense of the importance of it. much the is not so prime minister he picks, it is whether he can get a majority in parliament. two times for president's is not enough, they have to go back in june to elect the parliament. without a parliament shall -- parliamentary majority, the president doesn't have powers. neither have established parties in parliament. macron's party was just created a year ago. it is unlikel

ms le pen recited passages delivered two weeks earlier by francois fillon.e secretary, diane abbott, is denying her credibility is in question after repeatedly getting her sums wrong in relation to a key labour election policy. in a radio interview this morning, she said plans to put an extra 10,000 police officers on the streets would cost £300,000 rather than £300 million. she later said she had ‘misspoken‘ and did know herfigures. earlier, our home affairs correspondent, dominic casciani, was here with a reality check on labour's figures. a pretty bad day for diane abbott. she has had a real struggle with this, but the key claim she was making to have an attack on the tories was that we have lost 20,000 police officers since 2010. now, this is a key issue in the campaign, on the crime and justice. what has happened is this: in 2010, we got to an all—time high in police the bus, about 140,000 officers. in 2011, under the coalition, that fell away as budgets were cut, and as of about september of last year, the number was about 122,000, a little odd that ma

these allegations against francois fillon, he would have been a favourite for centre—right and his expensesa formidable vehicle behind him help, he took over as sarkozy as head of the party and he was hugely popular. everybody was absolutely convinced that he was going to be the next president and all of a sudden, this scandal broke out which has to do with the effectively self enrichment and i think that is what made an awful lot of difference in the minds of french

juppeo know that alain who ran against francois fillon buthe republican primary lost, edouard philippe of alain juppe. he was a very popular figure among the french people. jonathan: last week we heard from manuel valls looking to get behind macron's movement and party. are we seeing more defections from the traditional parties ahead of the parliamentary elections? nominatedl macron has 450 of the nearly 600 candidates in the legislative election. spacerying to leave some to have some agreement to possibly welcome some socialists, some republicans in the legislative majority. jonathan: thank you very much. joining us now is macro risk advisor ceo. buy europe or fade europe? >> is still -- it is still by uy europe. it has gotten past one of these big hurdles with respect to macron winning. there are still plenty of risks in the market. draghi the policy that has implemented is actually starting to bear fruit. inflationing better data and money is actually coming into the equity market. jonathan: let's talk about how crowded it is. berenson has a front page that suggests -- the front pag

campaign managerfor the we can talk to the regional campaign manager for the republican candidate francois fillonplain why? i will never vote for emmanuel macron or marine le pen, i can not find the social values of emmanuel macron and the economical programme and nationalist marine le pen. when people say they will not vote for either candidate, is that the way of playing in the favour of the far right candidate, marine le pen?|j think it is in the favour of nobody because i elect nobody. if you look at the equation, when the abstention goes up, her votes go up. the solution to make the nationalist‘s vote to go down is somewhere else. young people voted massively for marine le pen. they need to give back the desire of life and trust in themselves to the young people. back the desire of life and trust in themselves to the young peoplem 2002, her father was the themselves to the young peoplem 2002, herfather was the run—off with jacques chirac. entire left united behind jacques chirac to say no to the front nationale. why is it not happening this year? marine le pen seems to be stronger than her f

alain the right-wing candidate who ran in the republican primaries november and lost against francois fillon would be a strong signal from emmanuel macron towards the center-right. francine: in terms of priorities, i know he has to sell assets, he wants to reform france, but how much will he be distracted by general elections coming up in june? caroline: it all depends on this new coveted. this new cabinet, this new prime minister, will lead the battle for emmanuel macron to get his majority in parliament in june. if he does name this center-right prime minister, the idea in france is that he could form some kind of coalition with the center-right in order to push through reform and to get a majority. if he doesn't manage to get a clear majority from his own candidate, from his new party, which is of course just one year old, so still has a lot of work to do in order to get this majority. francine: caroline connan, thank you so much. still with us, nick gartside. what does that actually mean? politics in germany and france, what does it mean for spreads? nick: it is key. you've got stable po