French police raid Fillon’s home as he is warned of political ‘abyss’
PARIS: Police raided the Paris home of French rightwing presidential candidate Francois Fillon on Thursday over an alleged fake job scandal as a senior party colleague warned him he risked dragging his party ‘into an abyss’.
Fillon revealed Wednesday he is set to be charged over allegations he paid his wife and children hundreds of thousands of euros for fake parliamentary jobs, but he has vowed to continue his bid for power.
After searches at his parliamentary office last month, police raided his central Paris home Thursday as he visited winegrowers on the campaign trial in southern France.
The raid “finished several hours ago”, a source in Fillon’s team told AFP late Thursday, confirming information first reported by Le Parisien newspaper.
Fillon was accused by Dominique de Villepin, another former premier from his Republicans party, of driving the right wing “into the abyss” with his insistence on running for the presidency.
“Going down this dead- end street is taking the state, our faith in democracy and its fellow travellers hostage,” de Villepin wrote in Le Figaro newspaper.
Fillon has called the charges against him “entirely calculated to stop me being a candidate for the presidential election” and has ruled out stepping aside.
But defections from his team and calls from senior Republicans for ex- premier Alain Juppe, 71, to replace him have underlined divisions in his camp.
“The French people back me,” Fillon insisted Thursday. “The base is holding.”
New polls suggest Fillon is in third place and would win 1920 per cent in the first round of the election on April 23, behind centrist Emmanuel Macron and far- right leader Marine Le Pen.
Thousands still turned out to Fillon’s rally in the town of Nimes on Thursday evening and his calculation appears to be that he can close the small gap on his rivals in the remaining two months.
The top two from the first round proceed to a run- off on May 7, which Macron is currently shown winning.
But analysts warn against firm forecasts after a rollercoaster campaign so far. — AFP