Fillon hits back after wife’s salary questioned
FRENCH presidential frontrunner Francois Fillon criticised a campaign of “mudslinging” yesterday as he came under pressure over allegations he had employed his wife as a parliamentary aide for more than a decade.
The Canard Enchaine newspaper, which mixes satire and investigative reporting, alleged on Tuesday that British-born Penelope Fillon had been paid from money available to her husband as a longstanding MP for the northern Sarthe region.
The newspaper alleged she earned about ß500 000 (R7.13-million) in three separate periods, but said its reporters had not been able to find witnesses to her work.
“I see that the mudslinging season has started,” Fillon told reporters during a campaign event in Bordeaux.
“I won’t comment because there is nothing to comment on and I would like to say I am outraged by the disdain and misogyny in the article.”
Fillon’s spokesman, Thierry Solere, said on Tuesday that Penelope had worked for her husband, an arrangement he said was common among French MPs.
Hiring family members is not against the rules if the person is genuinely employed, but attention is focused on what work Penelope carried out for a salary which at times was around ß7 000 (R99 900) a month.
The mother-of-five has kept a low profile in Fillon’s nearly four-decade political career and was thought to have been focused on bringing up their children at their chateau in the Sarthe region.
The 62-year-old candidate for the rightwing Republicans party has run a campaign promising radical economic reforms and the protection of French culture.
“It’s up to him to explain himself,” Socialist party presidential candidate Manuel Valls said yesterday.
“You can’t say you’re the candidate of honesty and transparency and not be able to respond to these issues.”
Other opponents highlighted how Fillon frequently rails against the bloated French state and wasteful public spending, which he plans to tackle by cutting 500 000 civil servants if elected.
The French investigative website Mediapart reported in 2015 that one in five MPs had employed a family member at some point.