Fillon’s wife breaks silence over scandal about ‘fake jobs’
Print Edition
THE wife of scandal-hit French conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon broke her silence yesterday over the “fake jobs” scandal that threatens to dent his bid for power.
The former prime minister hopes to keep his election hopes alive with a rally in Paris but he is struggling to regain the initiative after a week in which members of his team deserted him.
Their departures followed Fillon’s disclosure that he would face charges over claims he gave his British-born wife and two of their children bogus parliamentary jobs.
In her first interview since the allegations of nearly 900,000 euros (US$950,000) in pay, Penelope Fillon told Le Journal du Dimanche she had carried out “a lot of different tasks” for her husband during his lengthy political career.
She had also urged him to “keep going to the end” but said only he could make the decision to stay in the race.
Fillon, who turned 63 on Saturday, was once the frontrunner in an election in which Marine Le Pen is attempting to steer the far-right into power in a major European country.
But Fillon’s support plummeted after the financial claims were made and he is now polling third behind Le Pen and 39-year-old centrist Emmanuel Macron.
French lawmakers are allowed to employ family members, but investigators are looking into what work Penelope did after it emerged she did not even have a pass for the National Assembly building.
“He needed someone to do a lot of different tasks, and if it wasn’t for me, he would have paid someone to do it, so we decided it would be me,” Penelope told the paper.
The former prime minister has claimed the accusations are politically motivated, even suggesting he believes the ruling Socialist government is behind the investigation.
He told supporters on Saturday their opponents were trying to “intimidate” them.
The danger for the conservative Republicans party is that an election they once expected to win handily could slip away if Fillon remains their candidate.
Polls currently show he could be eliminated in the first round of the two-stage contest on April 23, leaving Le Pen and Macron to contest the May 7 runoff.
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