Fillon’s wife breaks silence over scandal
The wife of scandal-hit French conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon broke her silence on Sunday over the “fake jobs” scandal that threatens to engulf his bid for power.
The wife of scandal-hit French conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon broke her silence on Sunday over the “fake jobs” scandal that threatens to engulf his bid for power.
The former prime minister, who is hoping to keep his election hopes alive, is struggling to regain the initiative after a week in which members of his team deserted him.
Their departures followed Fillon’s disclosure that he would face charges over claims he gave his British-born wife and two of their children bogus parliamentary jobs.
In her first interview since the allegations of nearly €900,000 in pay, Penelope Fillon told Le Journal du Dimanche that she had carried out “a lot of different tasks” for her husband during his lengthy political career. She also urged him to “keep going to the end”, but said only he could make the decision to stay in the race.
Fillon was once the frontrunner in an election in which Marine Le Pen is attempting to steer the far right into power in a major European country.
But Fillon’s support fell after the financial claims were made and he is now polling third behind Le Pen and 39-year-old centrist Emmanuel Macron.
French legislators are allowed to employ family members, but investigators are looking into what work Penelope Fillon did after it emerged she did not even have a pass for the National Assembly building.
“He needed someone to do a lot of different tasks, and if it wasn’t for me, he would have paid someone to do it, so we decided it would be me,” Penelope Fillon told the paper.
The former prime minister has claimed the accusations were politically motivated, even suggesting he believed the ruling Socialist government was behind the investigation. He told supporters on Saturday that their opponents were trying to “intimidate” them.