Fillon eyes Hollande inquiry

Le Pen renews anti-Islam rhetoric

PARIS, April 3, (Agencies): French presidential candidate Francois Fillon, an outsider to win after involvement in financial scandal, said on Monday he would order a parliamentary inquiry into allegations President Francois Hollande interfered in the justice system, if elected.

Once the frontrunner, the conservative former prime minister’s poll ratings have slumped since allegations surfaced that he paid his wife and sons hundreds of thousands of euros of public money for minimal work.

Although some polls show his support recovering slightly with less than three weeks to the April 23 first round, he is well behind far-right leader Marine Le Pen and independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, who are tipped to go through to a May 7 run-off.

Fillon, 63, who is being investigated by magistrates over the jobs allegations and over a gift of expensive suits, insisted on his innocence.

“If I had the slightest doubt about my guilt I wouldn’t be a candidate in the presidential election,” he told BFM TV.

He said he was the victim of “manipulation” and believed his case was being closely followed “by the highest authorities”.

He drew back from previous allegations that Hollande, a Socialist president who is not standing for a second term, had personally led a smear campaign against him. He said he could not prove this.

He said however that prosecutors should open an inquiry into allegations made in a book by two journalists from the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine that Hollande had had judicial wiretaps that interested him sent to his office.

“Prosecutors should take up this case. If they don’t do so and if I am elected president, there will be a parliamentary commission of enquiry,” Fillon said.

Hollande’s office has rejected Fillon’s accusations and denied interference in the justice system.

Fillon said that, given the investigations against him, there was “every chance” his own phone was tapped.

Fillon also said that Francois Baroin, a former finance minister, would be a “very good choice” for prime minister if he won election to the Elysee.

Election

Meanwhile, with just three weeks before the first round of France’s presidential election, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is working to galvanize voters with the anti-Islam rhetoric that is one of her trademarks.

Le Pen addressed thousands of supporters on Sunday in the southwest French city of Bordeaux, where she vowed to “uncompromisingly fight Islamist fundamentalism which seeks to impose its oppressive rules in our country.”

She also criticized the headscarves that some Muslim women wear, saying “girls in France should be able to dress as they wish” and “shouldn’t be forced to bury themselves under clothes of another age.”

Polls suggest Le Pen is one of the top contenders in the election’s first round on April 23, but would lose in the May 7 runoff.

In another development, France’s polling commission has issued a warning over a Russian news report suggesting conservative candidate Francois Fillon leads the race for the presidency - something which contradicts the findings of mainstream opinion pollsters.

The cautionary note from the watchdog on pre-election polling followed allegations in February by aides of centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron that he was a target of “fake news” put out by Russian media including the Sputnik news agency.

Macron takes a hard line on European Union sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis, whereas Fillon has said they are totally ineffective, creating a “cold war” climate that needs to be reversed.

Almost all media in France are drawing on polls that have shown since mid-February that Fillon, a former prime minister, is trailing in third place behind Macron and far right leader Marine Le Pen for the April 23 first round. Third place would mean Fillon’s elimination from the May 7 runoff.

State-run Sputnik carried different findings in a report on March 29 under the headline: “2017 presidential elections: the return of Fillon at the head of the polls”.

It quoted Moscow-based Brand Analytics, an online audience research firm, as saying that its study based on an analysis of French social media put Fillon out in front.

In a statement, France’s polling commission said the study could not be described as representative of public opinion and Sputnik had improperly called it a “poll”, as defined by law in France.

“It is imperative that publication of this type of survey be treated with caution so that public opinion is aware of its non-representative nature,” it said.

Brand Analytics’ track record either for political polling or for commercial internet audience measurement outside of Russia and former Soviet territory is unknown.