French investigative magistrates have asked the European Parliament in Strasbourg to lift the parliamentary immunity of Marine Le Pen, the leader of the extreme right-wing National Front (FN) and a leading presidential candidate, so that she can be questioned and possibly charged in connection with a fake jobs scandal. Judges want to inform her that she is mise en examen, or formally placed under investigation, but can do so only in her presence.
Rodolphe Bosselut, Le Pen's attorney, said in February that she won't comply with any summons until after the election.
In the second poll showing the top four within three points of each other, BVA pollsters said: "All scenarios are possible for April 23".
She is one of the frontrunners in the first round vote to be held on April 23. Le Pen denies any wrongdoing and says she's part of "political dirty tricks". Le Pen refused to pay or to appear before judges for questioning on March 10.
Ms Le Pen reacted to the latest development in a nonchalant manner.
"It's totally normal procedure, I'm not surprised", Le Pen told France Info radio.
The parliament believes the party used funds allotted for parliamentary assistants to pay Le Pen's personal assistant Catherine Griset and her bodyguard Thierry Legier for party work in France.
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The EU's anti-fraud agency Olaf asked Ms Le Pen and five other FN deputies to repay salaries of people it considered to be bogus assistants.
Le Pen would not win the presidency whoever she faced in the run-off, polls indicate.
According to media reports, Paris' prosecutor's office launched an investigation in 2015 to look into the European Union parliamentary assistants fraudulently paid for their services with European Union funds while working for FN. No opinion poll has shown her winning the runoff.
Both candidates have lost ground, however.
In a TV debate last week, Ford worker Philippe Poutou, candidate of the New Anticapitalist Party tore into her. (Onwards!), Jean-Luc Melenchon, candidate of the French far-left Parti de Gauche, in Paris, France.
The French judges, who opened an inquiry last December, on March 29 filed a request letter with the prosecutor's office and the justice ministry, broadcasters Europe 1 and France Inter reported. The commission then reports to a plenary session of the parliament, where each deputy votes individually.
Le Pen's denial this week that the French state bore any responsibility for the mass arrest of Jews in Paris during World War Two may also have dented her ratings.
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