French presidential frontrunner warns accusations help far-Right
FRANCE: Embattled French presidential frontrunner Francois Fillon warned yesterday that muck-racking against mainstream candidates in the race for the Elysee palace could end up propelling the far-Right National Front party to power.
‘‘If we continue to try to destroy credible candidates in the presidential election, this is how it’ll end,’’ Fillon told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.
The conservative former prime minister had seemed odds-on to win the presidency in elections to be held in three months’ time, until satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine published a story last week that threw his campaign off track.
The report said his wife had received a salary from fake jobs, including several years as his parliamentary assistant.
Fillon has denied the jobs were fake and said his wife had for years proof-read his speeches and prepared press reviews.
Fillon vowed to fight the accusations ‘‘all the way’’ but said he had never expected the presidential campaign to be so hard.
‘‘I had no idea it would be so violent and drop that low,’’ he said.
An official inquiry into the allegations has been opened.
On Thursday, investigators searched the Left Bank headquarters of the prestigious Revue des Deux Mondes cultural journal, which briefly employed Fillon’s wife Penelope as a literary reviewer, a source close to the investigation said.
She was paid €100,000 (NZ$147,000) for an 18-month stint at the journal, owned by a billionaire businessman friend of Fillon, according to the weekly, which said it had only found two articles signed under her pseudonym.
Investigators have also seized Francois Fillon’s file at France’s official anticorruption watchdog, which contains previous wealth declarations, the source added.
What French media dubbed ‘‘Penelopegate’’ has rattled Fillon’s supporters. It was not clear who could take up the baton if Fillon were forced to drop out of the race.
On Friday, Fillon’s former rival for the conservative ticket, Bordeaux mayor Alain Juppe, ruled out replacing him should he step down over the scandal.
Seeking to retake the initiative, Fillon will hold a rally in Paris today.
In the newspaper interview, Fillon said he could bring France’s unemployment rate, currently hovering around 10 per cent, below 7 per cent by the end of the next five-year term thanks to a mix of deregulation, lower taxes on wages and a higher retirement age. – Reuters