French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has said capital controls could be used if she won the election and there was a run on banks as she negotiated France's exit from the European Union, but stressed they were unlikely to be needed.
In an interview with Reuters, Ms Le Pen reaffirmed she wanted to take France out of the euro and said she hoped the French people would have a national currency in their pockets within two years.
She said she wanted to replace the EU single currency with another, looser type of cooperation in the form of the ECU basket of currencies that preceded the euro. That would exist alongside a national currency.
"The objective is to transform the euro 'single currency' into a euro 'common currency', going back to the ancestor of the euro, the ECU, which was an accounting unit that did not stop each country from having each its own currency," Ms Le Pen said.
Calling the euro a "dead weight on the French economy", the National Front (FN) candidate said a new national currency would better protect French people's savings.
She accused the "establishment" of wanting to "frighten" voters into thinking otherwise.
"I am convinced there won't be any banking crisis," Ms Le Pen said when asked if French negotiations to quit the EU could trigger a run on French banks.
Asked if she would impose capital controls if savers nevertheless did rush to take their money out of banks, she said: "If there's a run on banks, we could very well imagine such a solution for a few days, but I'm telling you it won't happen."
Le Pen comes under fire over plagiarised speech
Earlier, the presidential candidate came under fire on social media for lifting sections of a speech from a conservative rival, in what Ms Le Pen’s aides said was a "nod-and-a-wink" to his voters.
Although the speech caused an online sensation over plagiarism, it appeared to be an attempt by Ms Le Pen to reach out to supporters of Francois Fillon, who was knocked out in the 23 April first round of voting after coming third with 20% of the vote.
Polls show Ms Le Pen lagging behind centrist front-runner Emmanuel Macron by around 20 points before Sunday's runoff and she needs to broaden her base to stand a chance of winning.
Mr Fillon has urged voters to back Mr Macron.
In one part of her speech, which was delivered yesterday and lasted about 50 seconds, Ms Le Pen talked about people learning French in Argentina and Poland, and on waiting lists to study at the Alliance Francaise official French schools abroad, in a word-per-word lifting of a mid-April speech by Mr Fillon.
French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has come under fire on social media for lifting sections of a speech from a conservative rival pic.twitter.com/wOsb2cMh6y
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) May 2, 2017
Ms Le Pen added to Mr Fillon's comment that this showed France is more than a military and industrial power, that France "must and can" become a big power again.
It was the second most trending topic on Twitter in France, with the hashtag #plagiat - plagiarism in French.
The incident had echoes of an incident during last year's US election when a writer for then-candidate Donald Trump's campaign apologised for a speech by Mr Trump's wife Melania that drew accusations of plagiarism.
The FN candidate's team was unrepentant, however. Florian Philippot, an FN deputy leader, said the party "completely owned up" to the fact that the speech resembled one by Mr Fillon.
Ms Le Pen also described France's borders and ties with "Italy, our sister" - again a phrase used in Mr Fillon's 15 April speech, and used the same quote from early 20th century French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau.
In another excerpt about prospects of cooperation with France's neighbours, where the words were again the same as in Mr Fillon's speech, Ms Le Pen added that this would require France not being "a vassal" of Germany.
French newspapers and social media highlighted the similarities, but Ms Le Pen’s aides brushed off the criticism.
Mr Philippot told Radio Classique that her speech was a "nod-and-a-wink" to Mr Fillon's speech in order to "launch a real debate" about French identity.
Ms Le Pen's campaign manager David Rachline also played down plagiarism accusations, painting her speech as a form of tribute to Mr Fillon.
The reference "was appreciated, including by all of Mr Fillon's supporters," Mr Rachline told France 2 television.
There was no immediate comment from Mr Fillon.
