French election: Fillon to stay in race despite ‘fake jobs’ charges

For the first time in French history, a candidate who is under investigation for corruption will participate in the first round of the presidential election on April 23rd.

François Fillon, the nominee for the conservative Les Républicains (LR), disclosed the latest development himself on Wednesday in a diatribe against what he portrayed as a justice system manipulated by the socialist administration for political purposes, with the collusion of media.

“I will not give in. I will not give up. I will not withdraw,” Mr Fillon, surrounded by high-ranking LR officials, said in a hastily organised declaration, . “I will go to the end, because beyond my person, it is democracy that has been defied.”

Mr Fillon will be questioned by investigating magistrates on March 15th, two days before the deadline for candidates to finalise their place on the ballot. The purpose of the summons is to inform him that he has been mis en examen or officially placed under investigation, which is tantamount to being charged.

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A former prime minister of France, Mr Fillon was an early favourite to win this year's presidential election until reports emerged that his Welsh wife, Penelope, and their children, Marie and Charles, were paid more than €1 million in total for allegedly fictitious jobs in places including the National Assembly and the Senate.

When the "Penelopegate" scandal started, on January 25th, Mr Fillon said he would withdraw from the race if he was mis en examen. But as judiciary procedures continued, he changed his mind, telling Le Figaro he would not withdraw under any circumstances, but rather would let voters decide his fate.

Lagging popularity

After his surprise victory in the LR primary last November, Mr Fillon's popularity had already begun to lag before the scandal over fictitious jobs broke with an article in the satirical weekly Canard Enchaîné.

Mr Fillon is currently running third in polls, after the Front National candidate, Marine Le Pen, and the independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, a former protégé of President François Hollande. After the first-round vote next month, the top two candidates will go through to a run-off on May 7th.

Mr Fillon referred to his opponents yesterday, saying he would not allow France to be forced to choose between “the mad adventure of the extreme right or the continuation of Hollandism”.

Mr Fillon hired his wife and children as parliamentary assistants over a period of decades. The practice, he argues, is legal and widely followed. He also asked his successor to continue to employ his wife when he left the National Assembly to become a cabinet minister. And Penelope Fillon was paid to be a "literary advisor" by a millionaire friend of the candidate.

It is claimed Ms Fillon and the couple’s children did not perform the jobs for which they were paid. Recourse to fictitious employment is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of €500,000.

The financial prosecutor’s office assigned the case to three magistrates on February 24th, asking that Mr Fillon be investigated for “misappropriation of public funds, fraud, complicity and possession of misappropriated funds, influence-peddling and omissions in disclosures to the high authority on transparency in public life”.”

‘Unprecedented harrassment’

“Many of my political friends, and those who supported me in the [LR] primary, in which four million people voted, speak of political assassination,” Mr Fillon said on Wednesday.

“It is, in effect, an assassination, but through this disproportionate, unprecedented harrassment, through the choice of timing, it is not I alone who is assassinated: it is the presidential election,” he said.

Mr Fillon’s attempts to relaunch his campaign have been thwarted repeatedly by new legal developments. He is unable to campaign normally, because left-wing protesters disrupt his rallies by clanging casseroles, a symbol of corruption.

Mr Fillon enjoys parliamentary immunity and could have refused to respond to the judges’ summons, as Ms Le Pen did last week. She is accused of using EU funds to hire party workers.