Fillon suffers fresh blow in opinion polls
PARIS: The frontrunner in France’s presidential election, Emmanuel Macron, received yet another boost to his candidacy on Sunday when nine lawmakers from a center-right party allied with conservative rival Francois Fillon decided to rally behind him.
The nine senators from the UDI- UC party wrote a joint op- ed in the Journal du Dimanche weekly to say they would support Macron, a former minister in Socialist President Francois Hollande’s government, because of his pro- European stance and bid to go beyond the left- right political divide.
“Emmanuel Macron’s method is the right one,” they wrote, adding: “He wants to bring people together ... and trigger a new dialogue between the French people and their representatives.”
Fillon was the frontrunner for France’s April and May presidential election until an investigative weekly reported in late January that he had paid his wife as his parliamentary assistant for work she did not do.
He denies any wrongdoing but magistrates put him under investigation, a first for a presidential candidate in France.
Macron, an independent centrist who created his own En Marche! ( Onwards!) party last year, is now topping the polls and is forecast to beat far- right leader Marine Le Pen in an election run- off.
The high number of undecided voters, however, means the ballot remains quite unpredictable.
On Saturday, Fillon’s aides used an umbrella to shield him from eggs thrown by protesters in southwest France as the beleaguered conservative fell further behind Macron and Le Pen in opinion polls ahead of the April 23 first- round vote.
The UDI- UC has a total of 42 lawmakers in the French Senate.
France’s electoral campaign is being affected by a string of corruption scandals. Five years ago, Hollande campaigned on the promise to make the country “exemplary.” He probably did not think he would have so much clean-up to do in his own camp.
Hollande recently inaugurated the French anti- corruption agency, a public organization focusing on business activity — the latest move in government efforts to fight corruption.
The government also passed a law in 2013 to force ministers and parliamentarians to declare their assets and avoid any con- flict of interest.
The same year, another bill tightened France’s legal arsenal to fight tax fraud and evasion.
“French people want exemplary attitude from their political leaders,” said French Environment Minister Segolene Royal, who also noted the consequences of corruption on France’s image abroad.”
The minister said: “( We are) the country of human rights, a country of law. We need to watch our behavior.”
Le Pen, meanwhile, sought to reassure voters concerned over her plans to withdraw the country from the euro zone, saying it “wouldn’t be chaos” and she would seek “well- prepared” talks with other EU countries.
“The euro triggered a very serious increase in prices and a very steep drop in purchasing power,” Le Pen said in an interview published in Le Parisien newspaper. “It is also a serious hindrance to job creation because it triggered a loss in competitiveness for the French economy.”
Hollande’s strong stance on fighting corruption and financial wrongdoing is a marked contrast with his predecessors’ attitudes.
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy is facing legal troubles. Prosecutors want him and 13 others sent to trial for a campaign financing case involving his failed 2012 presidential bid. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Jacques Chirac, the French president from 1995- 2007, was given in 2011 a two- year suspended sentence for embezzling public funds while he was mayor of Paris.