Fillon, once seen as a favourite, is mired in scandal
France’s presidential campaign is facing a potential turning point as conservative candidate Francois Fillon, facing corruption charges, holds a rally on Sunday that could determine whether he stays in the race.
The rally across from the Eiffel Tower is meant to gauge Fillon’s remaining support after numerous defections by conservative allies just seven weeks before the first round of the April-May poll. They’re disillusioned by how he handled the investigation into allegations he arranged parliamentary jobs for his wife and children that they never performed.
Protesters plan two counterdemonstrations in Paris during his rally. Fillon is expected to speak on national television on Sunday night, though canceled a radio interview scheduled Monday morning. Fillon’s party, The Republicans, is holding a meeting of its political committee on Monday evening to evaluate the situation after Sunday’s rally.
Fillon’s wife Penelope urged her husband to stay in the race, in her first interview since the scandal broke in January.
“Unlike the others, I will not abandon him,” Penelope Fillon was quoted as saying in the Journal du dimanche newspaper.
“I told him to continue to the end. Every day I told him that,” she said, but added, “He is the one who will decide.”
If Fillon quits, that would throw France’s already exceptional, unpredictable campaign into disarray anew.
Many conservatives want Alain Juppe to run in his place for the two-round April-May vote, though their Republicans party has no official Plan B. Juppe, who campaigned on a more moderate platform than the tough-on-security, pro-free market Fillon, was runner-up in the conservative primary.
Fillon was once the frontrunner in the race, but his ratings have fallen since the jobs allegations were revealed by weekly Le Canard Enchaine. Polls now suggest far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron would come out on top in first round vote April 23, and face off in the May 7 runoff. AP