French far-right-leader Marine Le Pen refused to attend a summons for questioning by police last Wednesday over allegations that she made illegal EU payments to her staff, her lawyer said on Friday. Le Pen's chief of staff was put under formal investigation on Feb 22 after a day of questioning over the alleged misuse of EU funds to pay parliamentary assistants. Her bodyguard was also questioned but was later released without being placed under investigation. Le Pen, 48, who has denied any wrongdoing and says she is the victim of "political dirty tricks", is set to come first in the first round of an election for president on April 23 but lose in the May 7 runoff to either independent Emmanuel Macron or conservative Francois Fillon, according to opinion polls.

Amid a scandal regarding allegations of fake jobs, currently under investigation, Le Pen reinforced the Front National's anti-globalist ideology by going after NATO, the European Union and its figureheads. "The political vision I put forward for my country is to maintain the unicity of its culture, that is, the nation should be unified though its culture, regardless of the social members' backgrounds."

"I want to make it clear that the EU is not Europe." Le Pen views that EU regulations have undermined not only the French economy but France's national sovereignty. "The EU makes France lag behind in the world."

She praised fellow euroskeptics, saying that she is "very glad to see that Europeans have awakened and oppose the union in favor of Europe." referring to the recent sharp increase in popularity of other parties across the continent.

The FN has experienced a sharp increase in popularity in recent years. The latest polls show that the Front National is still climbing the numbers up, as is Geert Wilders' PVV. Even though most polls show her winning the first round but losing the second round to a more mainstream adversary, as the days go by her chances only seem to be increasing.