Juppe waits in wings if Fillon quits French race
BORDEAUX: Veteran French conservative Alain Juppe is ready to step in as presidential candidate if the beleaguered Francois Fillon pulls out, his entourage said yesterday as the list of deserters from Fillon’s camp grew. Fillon’s spokesman Thierry Solere quit the campaign yesterday in the latest sign that support is crumbling over an expenses scandal. Pressure has been building on 62-year-old former prime minister Fillon since he revealed this week that he will be charged over allegations he paid his wife Penelope hundreds of thousands of euros for fake parliamentary jobs.
The 71-year-old Juppe, also a former prime minister, was beaten by Fillon in the conservative primary in November despite being the clear pre-contest favorite. He has kept out of the campaign since then as far-right candidate Marine Le Pen has taken the lead in opinion polls and centrist Emmanuel Macron has also benefited from Fillon’s woes.
Juppe ready
With supporters deserting Fillon by the day and the first round of voting fast approaching on April 23, Juppe is now prepared to take over, a member of his entourage said. Juppe “will not refuse if all the conditions are met-Francois Fillon has to take the decision to pull out himself and the rightwing and centre camps have to be united behind him”, the unnamed source said. Since his defeat in the primary, Juppe has kept a low profile in the southwest city of Bordeaux where he is mayor. Police raided the Fillons’ Paris residence on Thursday, adding to the pressure on him to step aside.
Solere, a key member of his team, said on Twitter yesterday he was quitting. Already gone from Fillon’s campaign are two deputy directors, the treasurer and his foreign affairs point man Bruno Le Maire. Le Pen, campaigning on an antiimmigration and anti-EU platform, has a clear lead in polling ahead of the first round in an election influenced by the same populist themes that swept Donald Trump to power in the United States and led British voters to opt to leave the European Union. Surveys currently show however that Le Pen will be beaten in the decisive runoff on May 7 by either the fast-rising Macron or the conservative candidate.
The danger for the right is that Fillon has slipped to third place in polling and risks being eliminated in the first round. Fillon hit out at the justice system this week, claiming he was the victim of a “political assassination” over the fake jobs allegations that were first made by the Canard Enchaine newspaper. Investigators are probing what work Fillon’s wife Penelope actually performed for her pay. A source close to Juppe told Le Parisien newspaper yesterday that the veteran politician “felt ill” when he heard Fillon questioning the impartiality of judges. —AFP