Far-right Marine Le Pen is ahead in the polls as campaigning hots up before the first round of the French Presidential election on April 23.

Despite fears of yet another populist victory and the future of the European Union under very real threat her poll lead is increasing by the day, she is currently polling at 26 percent.

Marine Le Pen: 'Brexit has been a powerful weapon for us' https://t.co/VyXRknoMYOpic.twitter.com/ab6UGPngFH — BI UK Politics (@BIUK_Politics) February 16, 2017

Not everyone is boarding the Le Pen bandwagon:“It’s disgusting to see Marine Le Pen in the lead, but what can we do, its like this, the French are stupid,’‘ said one man.

“It makes me panic a bit, but I don’t know what to think, it makes me feel sad,” agreed a woman, while another

man also expressed anti-Le Pen sentiment:

“It bothers me that Le Pen is in front, but as we have seen opinion polls don’t mean that much.”

The presidential campaign of former French Prime Minster François Fillon is in tatters after France’s financial prosecutor said a probe into ‘fake work’ allegations remains open.

French media: prosecutors to start legal action against Francois Fillon https://t.co/T2B7ePDkNnpic.twitter.com/BJjkWlbJKD — dwnews (@dwnews) February 12, 2017

The scandal over hundreds of thousands euros of taxpayers’ cash paid to his wife for work she may or may not have done has cost Fillion his shot at the Elysee Palace.

Centrist Emmanuel Macron is set to benefit from Fillion’s fall from grace moving to 23 percent in the pre-election polls.

Emmanuel Macron is a French anti-Trump. But he is making the running. https://t.co/N2ZcrdMl2Dpic.twitter.com/tlB4Kftq1Z — Prospect Magazine (@prospect_uk) February 14, 2017

The vote goes to a second round on May 7 in a run-off between the two leading candidates from the first vote.