Fillon
fights on (and on)
‘I
see no reasons to withdraw,’ the conservative candidate said. ‘But
I’m not autistic and I can listen.’
By PIERRE
BRIANÇON 3/5/17, 5:54 PM CET Updated 3/6/17, 1:23 AM CET
PARIS — François
Fillon is determined to remain a candidate in the French presidential
election, he said Sunday but added the caveat that he wants to “talk
to his political friends” before confirming his decision.
In an interview on
French television Sunday night, Fillon declared his rally in Paris
earlier in the day “a success” and insisted that his platform was
“the only one” that had been approved by Républicains voters in
the party’s primary in November.
“I see no reasons
to withdraw,” Fillon said. “But I’m not autistic and I can
listen.”
The conservative
candidate said he will attend a meeting of his party’s “political
committee” scheduled for Monday night, a meeting intended to
salvage the conservative party’s campaign, which has been damaged
by a steady stream of revelations that Fillon used public funds to
pay significant salaries to his wife and children for allegedly
fictitious jobs.
Fillon is currently
in third place behind front-runner Marine Le Pen, who is polling at
around 27 percent of the votes, and centrist candidate Emmanuel
Macron, the former economy minister who has mounted a solo
presidential run, at 24.5 percent. Fillon polls at around 20 percent,
and so he wouldn’t make it to the second round of the election,
which is scheduled for May 7.
“I’ve
done my soul searching … And I want to say to the politicians in my
camp: now it’s time to do yours” — François Fillon
Bordeaux Mayor Alain
Juppé — seen as the favorite to pick up the conservative baton in
case Fillon pulled out of the race — said he would make a statement
Monday morning in what observers believe is an indication that Juppé
won’t run, despite entreaties from many members of the Républicains
party. The main loser of the conservative primary four months ago,
Juppé has always indicated that he would only consider running if
Fillon made the decision to withdraw.
Though he had
promised to drop out if he was placed under a formal investigation,
Fillon instead ratcheted up the rhetoric after announcing Wednesday
that he would soon be placed under formal investigation by a French
judge, pledging to “fight until the end” and attacking the judges
whom he’d accused before of being “politically motivated.”
Both in the TV
interview and in his speech at the Paris rally, however, Fillon
struck a decidedly more conciliatory tone than he had in the past few
days.
“I’ve done my
soul searching,” he said to the gathering of his supporters on the
Trocadéro Square overlooking the Eiffel Tower. “And I want to say
to the politicians in my camp: now it’s time to do yours. Will you
let the passions of the moment take precedence over the national
interest?”
Instead of insisting
he would stay in the race, Fillon apologized for what he called his
two “mistakes.” The first was having employed his wife as his own
parliamentary aide — which gave rise to the allegation he had
misused public funds to do so. The second mistake was “having
hesitated on the best way” to explain what he did to the French
people, he said.
Fillon has always
protested that although he regretted having put his wife and children
on his parliamentary payroll, he didn’t do anything illegal.
The meeting of the
political committee of the Républicains party, originally scheduled
for Tuesday, has been brought forward to Monday night by chair Gérard
Larcher — the president of the French senate — and Bernard
Accoyer, the party’s general secretary, due to “political
circumstances,” the two men said in a statement.
In the last few
days, Fillon has faced a wave of desertions from his campaign staff.
In short order, his main foreign policy adviser Bruno Le Maire, his
campaign manager Patrick Stefanini, top spokesman Thierry Solère and
treasurer Gilles Boyer resigned from the campaign, saying they didn’t
believe Fillon could be elected after having broken his repeated
pledge not to run if he was ever put under a formal judicial probe.
Some Républicains
officials noted Sunday that the political committee is just an ad hoc
body, created by Fillon in the wake of his surprise victory in the
conservative primary last November. So far Fillon loyalists hold a
majority in the body, comprised of some 15 people.
Fillon devoted much
of his speech Sunday to a robust defense of his policy platform. That
seemed to lend credence to rumors that one of the ways contemplated
by the Républicains to spare him total humiliation would be to
pledge that, if he stood down, any replacement candidate would run on
Fillon’s program.
Juppé could hardly
agree to such a deal, having fought against that platform throughout
the primary election, which he eventually lost.
The first round of
the election is scheduled for April 23.
Authors:
Pierre Briançon
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