Hopeful’s troubles deepen over wife
FRENCH conservative Francois Fillon has suffered a new blow to his ailing presidential campaign, with prosecutors ruling out dropping a probe into damaging claims his wife had a fake parliamentary job.
Three weeks into a preliminary probe for misuse of public funds, the financial prosecutor’s office said “numerous elements gathered” warranted further investigation.
Mr Fillon shrugged off the statement, saying there was “nothing new” in it and that it served merely to “fuel the media frenzy”.
The 62-year-old former prime minister has pledged to withdraw from the race if charged.
The revelations that Mr Fillon put his Welsh-born wife Penelope on the public payroll have dragged down his poll numbers and boosted the prospects of centrist rival Emmanuel Macron ahead of the two-stage election.
Also bolstered by the scandal is far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who has stretched her poll lead for the first round on April 23 but is expected to lose to her opponent in the May 7 run-off of the top two candidates.
Penelope Fillon, 62, netted at least 680,000 euros ($720,000) as a parliamentary assistant to her husband and another MP over a period spanning 15 years.
She is accused of having barely worked for her salary.
The French Senate has passed a law widening the circumstances in which the police may legally open fire, four months after a firebomb attack in a Paris suburb seriously injured two officers and caused outrage in the ranks.
The vote comes amid renewed tensions in the outskirts of Paris after a local was allegedly sodomised with a police baton during a check in the suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois two weeks ago.