French presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron has filed a defamation complaint against his far-right rival Marine Le Pen after the National Front (NF) candidate accused him of having an offshore account.
The former Rothschild investment banker, who is favourite to win Sunday's election, filed the complaint after Le Pen made a reference to rumors circulating online that Macron had placed funds in an offshore account in the Bahamas, AFP reported.
"I hope that we will not find out that you have an offshore account in the Bahamas," she said during a bruising presidential debate on Wednesday that was watched by 16.5 million viewers.
French prosecutors launched a probe into the accusations after the 39-year-old centrist candidate described Le Pen's leading statements as defamatory.
The campaign team for his independent En Marche! Party pounced on the right winger's statements calling them a "textbook case" of "fake news," adding to the false information that began circulating online two hours before the debate started.
Le Monde reported that the rumors referencing a Macron offshore account originated on the online forum 4Chan, popular with supporters of the alternative right or alt-right movement.
An anonymous user posted two documents purportedly from an offshore company "La Providence" in the Caribbean, bearing Macron's signature. His campaign dismissed the papers as an "outrageous falsification."
Le Pen, 48, later admitted on the French television channel BFMTV that she had no hard evidence to support what she had implied during the debate. At a campaign stop in the western town of Dol-de-Bretagne she said that the comments helped her succeed in her goal of annoying Macron.
According to a poll by the Elabe group, 63 percent of those interviewed in the immediate aftermath of the debate found Macron more convincing, versus 34 percent siding with Le Pen, AFP reported.
With the election just two days away latest polls suggest a win for the pro-EU Macron. The former Minister of Economy is predicted to garner around 62 percent of the vote, with Le Pen on 38 percent.
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Callum Paton is a staff writer at Newsweek specializing in North Africa and the Middle East. He has worked freelance ... Read more
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