Fillon vows to cut public spending by £87bn as questions raised on suits gifts
FRENCH presidential candidate Francois Fillon has presented a new version of his campaign platform in an effort to claw back support amid a series of controversies and corruption allegations.
Mr Fillon was put on the defensive again in recent days after his conservative party posted a caricature of a rival candidate that carried anti-Semitic overtones and a newspaper raised questions about expensive suits he received as a gift.
The candidate himself announced he was summoned to appear before judges tomorrow in the ongoing investigation of whether he allegedly used taxpayers’ money to pay family members for jobs that may not have existed.
Yesterday, Mr Fillon pledged to implement major economic reforms, including the abolition of the 35-hour work week and tax cuts for companies and employees.
He also vowed to decrease public spending by €100 billion (£87bn) during the president’s fiveyear term and to cut the number of public service workers by filling one out of every two positions that fall vacant due to retirements.
“In reality this is a platform of growth. This is a platform which is carried by the ambition to make France a great economic and political power again,” Mr Fillon said.
The election will run from April 23 to May 7 and Mr Fillon lags in polls behind far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron.
A Republicans party official is facing disciplinary procedures over the online caricature of Mr Macron, a former banker.
The caricature, which evoked the stereotyped cartoons used to demonise Jews in the 1930s and 1940s, pictured the candidate as a banker with a hooked nose, wearing a top hat, holding a sickle and cutting a cigar. Mr Macron is not Jewish.
Mr Fillon called “unacceptable”.
Meanwhile, responding to a published report suggesting possible conflict of interest around the gifted suits, Mr Fillon said his choice of clothes was part of his “private life”.
A weekly newspaper reported an unidentified benefactor bought Mr Fillon suits worth more than £42,000 over the past five years, including two worth £11,000 last month. it