Posted on 02/01/2017 12:33:02 AM PST by Nextrush
France's centre-right presidential candidate, Francois Fillon, has been hit by further allegations on the day that anti-corruption police raided his office in parliament.
Satirical weekly Le Candard Enchaine said last week that his wife Penelope had been paid hundreds of thousands of euros for fake jobs.
Now it has reported that the earned far more and for longer.
Mr. Fillon hit back, calling the claims a campaign to destroy his candidacy.
"Never in the history of the Fifth Republic has such an operation of very professional slander been launched in an attempt to eliminate a candidate," he said.
He earlier insisted he and his wife had nothing to hide. His campaign team told Le Monde that the fresh allegations did not change a thing but just gave a more impressive figure.
Nevertheless, his reputation and poll ratings have been badly damaged by the claims......
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
He still leads Marine LePen in a second round vote, but the margin has been cut in half from 70-30 to 60-40 in a poll published Sunday, now new allegations are on the table.
He may drift further down in the polls with the new charges in the media and as the police investigation continues.
He can accuse Putin of running a smear campaign.
I want to like Marine LePen but she seems too hardline secular for my tastes...pro abortion. Against religion in general (not just Islam)...please correct me if I am wrong...
Call his speechwriters......
There is a campaign underway to emphasize her ‘religious views’.
I noticed in a search engine search of her name in the last 24 hours the category “Marine LePen atheist” come up in a group of possible searches involving her name.
Someone who wants to hurt her campaign wants to get that message out, no doubt.
It really would be something if Fillon’s wife ended up breaking the EU.
The next guy in line in the polls is the candidate named Macron.
He stood at 21 percent behind Fillon at 22 percent last Sunday with Le Pen at 27 percent first round.
He could beat Marine LePen in the second round better than Fillon could right now, I suspect.
You are right. And don’t forget Marine Lepen has also bought into all the major environmental scares. What not to dislike.
Her party is more a statist family-entreprise (she lives with the party’s vice president without marrying him) than a rightist political movement.
Macron is a socialist.
Speaking of their wives, here’s the pretty interesting scoop on Macron’s:
http://www.thelocal.fr/20170131/whos-the-older-woman-in-presidential-hopeful-macrons-life
As I understand it, M. Fillon explained that everyone puts his wife/husband/partner on the public payroll. It goes without saying, and therefore, saying it is unjust persecution.
C’est la France!
The old “Everybody does it” excuse.
Kind of an interesting admission...
Yes, and if Fillon and Le Pen go into the second round it is most likely that the socialist voters (who are then lacking a candidate) will put their votes on M. Fillon to stop Mme Le Pen. However, if M.Macron beats M. Fillon it is not certain that non-socialist voters will support the socialist, which means an increased chance for Mme LePen.
This development looks fatal to the center-right, and will benefit Macron the ex-Socialist but still quite socialist more than it will help Le Pen.
Center right will probably need a new candidate, but there’s no one who is both well-known and willing to run.
In France everyone does do it. Still, he’s toast.
C’est vrai!
Everyone - or as near as makes no difference - probably does do it. That makes everyone a crummy steward of the public welfare. It is for this reason (among a zillion others) that government resources and power should be cut to the bare minimum at every level.
I am sure Sarkozy can be persuaded, ;-).
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