‘One cannot govern France,’ declared François Fillon last November, ‘if one is not irreproachable.’ A little over three months later, however, and the centre-right candidate for next month’s French presidential candidate has had a change of heart.
The 62-year-old has today announced that he will be placed under formal investigation over allegations that during a period of several years he fictitiously employed three members of his family on lucrative salaries. François Fillon and his Welsh wife Penelope have been summoned by magistrates to answer the charges on 15 March, two days before the registration deadline for presidential candidates. Fillon says it is clearly a politically-motivated decision. ‘From the start, I have not been treated like anyone else facing the justice system,’ he said at a press conference today. ‘It’s a political assassination…I will not withdraw.’ Asked why not, Fillon replied: ‘It’s not just me they are killing, but the French presidential election.’
Nonetheless, Fillon’s pledge to continue standing as the candidate for Les Républicains’ has prompted
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