GETTY Le Pen is ahead in the polls as Fillon flounders over scandals

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And things are only set to get worse as Mr Fillon gets set to meet judges investigating claims he gave thousands of euros of taxpayers' money to his wife in a fake jobs scandal. The Republican's leader became embroiled in yet another scandal yesterday when he was accused of accepting £43,000 in free clothes. Mr Fillon is losing votes to Marine Len Pen who has once again taken a lead against En Marche! candidate Emmanuel Macron who is tipped by pollsters to win the second vote.

GETTY French strikers have been taking to the streets on a regular basis

I want to make 100 billion euros ($107 billion) of savings over five years and reduce by 500,000 the number of public sector jobs Francois Fillon

And the 63-year-old appeared to obliterate his own campaign by suggesting he wanted to cut 500,000 French public sector jobs. Mr Fillon also said he wanted to force austerity on a French public already struggling from a wave of strikes, cut backs and terrorism. And he said he wanted to bring an end to the 35-hour working week and raise the retirement age to 65 from 62.

GETTY Mr Macron drank milk when he visited the Paris agricultural show

He said: "I want to make 100 billion euros ($107 billion) of savings over five years and reduce by 500,000 the number of public sector jobs. "My programme is based on an ambition to make France a great political and economic power." A new opinion poll released this morning showed Fillon crashing out of race in the first round, taking 20 percent of the vote to Macron's 25 percent and Le Pen's 27 per cent. The Opinionway poll foresaw Mr Macron beating Ms Le Pen in the May 7 runoff by 62 per cent to her 38.

However it seems markets who are spooked with the potential of a Le Pen win are pricing in the potential of a market shock. Samy Chaar chief economist at Swiss private bank Lombard Odier said: "Riding on the wave of anti-EU, protectionist sentiment, the possibility of Le Pen making it to the Élysée has started to put markets on edge. "With the party’s key policies including taking France out of the euro and holding a referendum on EU membership, a Front National win could threaten the survival of the European project in the long term, while in the short term, tipping the region’s recovery off its axis.

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