‘FAKE JOBS’ SCANDAL
Penelope Fillon breaks her silence
The wife of scandal-hit French conservative presidential candidate says she worked at ‘a lot of different tasks’ for her husband during his lengthy political career
Paris — The wife of scandal-hit French conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon broke her silence on Sunday over the "fake jobs" scandal that threatens to engulf his bid for power. The former prime minister, who is hoping to keep his election hopes alive, is struggling to regain the initiative after a week in which members of his team deserted him. Their departures followed Fillon’s disclosure that he would face charges over claims he gave his British-born wife and two of their children bogus parliamentary jobs. In her first interview since the allegations of nearly €900,000 in pay, Penelope Fillon told Le Journal du Dimanche that she had carried out "a lot of different tasks" for her husband during his lengthy political career. She also urged him to "keep going to the end", but said only he could make the decision to stay in the race. Fillon was once the frontrunner in an election in which Marine Le Pen is attempting to steer the far right into power in a major European ...
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