THINGS appeared to be working like a dream for François Fillon. Despite negative media predictions, he had shoved aside by large margins sturdy rivals such as former head of the state Nicolas Sarkozy and ex prime minister Alan Juppé in the race for candidate of the Republican party in next April’s presidential election.

Opinion polls were now forecasting an easy win for Fillon against his socialist opponent during the first round and a considerable lead over the National Front candidate Marine Le Pen in the final round.

Then last week the whole scenario turned upside down following a revelation by satirical weekly Le Canard Enchainé. According to the paper, as prime minister in 2007 Fillon had employed his wife Penelope as assistant on a purely fictive job that earned for her a total salary of 500,000 euros during the next five years.

In a TV interview Fillon admitted the fact but denied that Penelope was paid for doing nothing. “It is a common practice for national assembly members to employ their family members”, he said adding:

“My wife helped me write my speeches, took care of all my correspondence and even replaced me when I couldn’t attend many a meeting due to lack of time. She paid income tax on her salary and it was no secret to the authorities.”

The Fillons were nevertheless ordered to answer questions before the anti-corruption authorities on Monday, Jan 30. The interrogation lasted nearly six hours, until late evening.

Two days later, on Wednesday Feb 1, Le Canard Enchainé blasted another bombshell by claiming that following further research its reporters found supplementary evidence proving Penelope was actually appointed as far back as in 1998 when her husband was only a member of the national assembly and that her total salary until 2013 in fact amounted to 930,000 euros. The Fillons had in addition employed their son and daughter, both students at the time and lawyers today, who were paid a sum of 84,000 euros, all out of taxpayers’ money, the weekly further claimed.

The total salaries of the supposedly fictive jobs now surpassed one million euros.

As proof of Penelope’s so-called non-existent work the paper further insisted on two points: that she had no security badge to enter the prime minister’s office or the national assembly building and had no professional email address linked with her job.

This was confirmed by Penelope’s defence lawyer Antonin Lévy who said: “It’s true that my client did not have those things, but this is a common practice and the majority of personal staff at the national assembly possesses neither a security badge nor an email address.”

The weekly that had made the so far unproved revelations quoted a legal expert according to whom the Fillon couple ran the risk of 10 years in prison and a fine of a million euros, if found guilty.

Further investigations by other journalists bring to light the fact that some 15 per cent of the 900 senators and national assembly members offer jobs to their family members and that the practice is very frequent. Edith Cottel, who works as assistant for her husband, the socialist MNA Jean-Jacques Cottel, says: “You know, for this kind of work you better be someone personally very close to your employer.”

Though so far Fillon has stuck to his election campaign, now even his faithful supporters have started having second thoughts about his candidature.

The Loire Valley journalist Jean Lauvergeat comments in his column: “There remains little doubt that François Fillon is in trouble. Even if the employment of his family members was perfectly legal, as presidential candidate he should have made things clear right on day one. That would have prevented the political space odyssey his wife Penelope finds herself caught in today.”

The writer is a journalist based in Paris

ZafMasud@gmail.com

Published in Dawn February 5th, 2017