Francois Fillon on Monday sought to save his bid for the French presidency in an hour-long news conference in which he set out extensive details of his family’s finances and offered an apology to voters as evidence of his probity.
Almost two weeks after the first report that the Republican candidate had employed his wife as a parliamentary assistant, he said that she took a salary for that job over the course of 15 years and that his children also worked for him for shorter periods.
The former prime minister emphasized that the practice is entirely legal, adding that he understood the outrage of many voters.
Photo: AFP
“Where does it leave me morally speaking? I must face up to myself and in reality also to the French people,” Fillon said. “What was acceptable yesterday is no longer acceptable today. It was an error. I regret it profoundly and I apologize to the French people.”
With less than three months to go until the first round of voting, the former front-runner is trying to halt a slide in the polls and stamp out suggestions that he will be forced to drop out of the race.
Fillon, 62, said he would be consulting with his party and hitting the campaign trail to defend his program of economic reform in coming days against the opposition of National Front leader Marine Le Pen and independent Emmanuel Macron.
“He bet everything — he was clearly repentant and accepted blame: he apologized, which is very rare for a politician,” Paris-based polling firm Ifop cohead Frederic Dabi said. “He said a new campaign is starting. We will see in the next 48 hours if voters are following him.”
The French finance prosecutor on Monday said that the Fillon investigation is ongoing, adding that “it would be hazardous to presuppose the outcome.”
Questions about his personal ethics have proved especially damaging for Fillon, because he won his shock victory in November last year’s primary by insisting that a candidate for president must have unquestioned integrity.
As about one-third of his support evaporated in opinion polls, he faced calls from some within his party to step aside and let another candidate pick up the baton.
Socialist nominee Benoit Hamon lashed out against Fillon on Monday, AFP reported.
“He is choosing the worst strategy by persisting in denial, it’s a bad mistake,” he said. “It shows Fillon doesn’t understand there’s a form of impunity that appears abnormal to the French people.”
Fillon himself on Monday appealed to primary voters again as he challenged his party critics to test their authority against his.
“I am not the candidate of a party — no organization has the legitimacy to put the primary vote into question,” he said. “A majority of French voters on the right want me to take forward my plans for a rupture with the past into the fight against Le Pen. I am candidate for the presidential election and I’m a candidate to win it.”
“It was quite risky,” said Pierre Lefebure, a teacher of political communication at University of Paris 13. “If it works, he’s back in the saddle. If it fails, he’ll keep crumbling. The next 24 to 48 hours will tell.”
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