Corruption scandal puts pressure on elections in France.
Pressure has mounted on French presidential candidate François Fillon to drop out of the race as some parliamentarians from his own conservative party have urged him to abandon the contest due to a scandal involving his wife, in order to avoid a party defeat. According to the press, the 62-year-old former prime minister's wife, Pénélope, received approximately €600 for work she did not perform.
Reuters - Pressure mounted on French presidential candidate François Fillon to drop out of the race on Thursday, as some lawmakers from his own conservative camp urged him to abandon the contest due to a scandal involving his wife, in order to avoid a party defeat.
The scandal, which emerged a week ago when a weekly magazine said that the wife of the 62-year-old former prime minister, Pénélope, received around 600 euros for work she did not do, has derailed Fillon's campaign.
"I think our candidate should stop," Alain Houpert, a conservative senator close to Nicolas Sarkozy, Fillon's former rival for the party's nomination, told Public Senat television on Wednesday night.
On the same day, Fillon held an emergency meeting with party leaders in which he urged them to remain by his side for another two weeks -- the time he estimated an official preliminary investigation would take.
But some of his supporters did not seem willing to grant him that extension after an opinion poll showed that Fillon, until recently the favorite in the election, would be defeated in the first round.
Another poll, published early Thursday, revealed that 69 percent of people want Fillon to drop out of the race.
"We need to change tactics, change strategy," said MP Georges Fennech to RTL radio on Thursday, adding that this must happen "without delay, today."
Another parliamentarian, Philippe Gosselin, asked that former Prime Minister Alain Juppé, whom Fillon defeated in the party primary, start thinking about offering himself as an alternative.