Will Hillary's scenario repeat itself with Macron?

Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen said on Thursday she believed she could win a surprise victory in the second round of France's presidential election while her rival Emmanuel Macron fell victim to a cyber attack.

In an interview with the Associated Press in the final hours of the race, Ms Le Pen said that win or lose, “we have changed everything”. She claimed an “ideological victory” for her populist, anti-immigration views in an election that could change the direction of Europe.

Will Ms. Le Pen or Mr. Macron become French president? (Photo: Express)

Ms. Le Pen's statement was made after the campaign of Mr. Emmanuel Macron (En Marche Movement party) announced late on May 5 that they were the "victims" of a large-scale cyber attack, leading to the leak of campaign financial records and emails.

In a statement, En Marche said it had been hacked several weeks ago and that the leaked files had been mixed with fake documents, "sowing doubt, disseminating information" and causing instability in the presidential election on May 7.

They also called it an attempt to "undermine democracy, just like the US election campaign". US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton suffered a similar leak and also said genuine documents were mixed with fake ones.

French presidential candidates suspended their campaigning on the evening of May 5 to give voters a day to think before the election, when they will have to choose between Ms Le Pen’s anti-immigration, anti-European Union (EU) stance or Mr Macron’s progressive, pro-EU stance.

However, tensions took their toll on the race in the final minutes.

The French presidential election watchdog called on the interior ministry on Thursday evening to look into claims by Ms Le Pen’s campaign that ballots were being forged across the country to favour Mr Macron. The campaign also claimed that Ms Le Pen’s ballots, which were distributed to election administrators, were “systematically torn up” in some regions.

Ms Le Pen, 48, is taking her far-right National Front party closer than ever to the French presidency as it taps into growing frustration with globalization and immigration among working-class voters. Even if she loses, she looks set to emerge as a powerful opposition figure in French politics in the upcoming parliamentary election campaign.

“Even if we don’t achieve our goals, in any event a huge political force is born,” she told the Associated Press at her campaign headquarters. The National Front “has imposed a reform” on French politics and has a say in the election, she asserted.

Meanwhile, candidate Macron (39 years old) also played an important role in improving France's traditional political structure with his wild advertising campaign.

Voters swept aside the left-wing and right-wing parties that have dominated modern France to choose Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen in the first round of voting.

But there are also many voters who dislike both candidates. They are concerned about the racist past of the National Front party that Ms Le Pen leads, while worrying that Mr Macron's views will cause French workers to lose many of their rights.

According to Vietnamnet.vn