Frontrunner refuses to back down over criticism of France’s ‘barbaric’ past as rival told ‘fake work’ inquiry will stay open

French presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron has refused to back down after his far-right rival attacked him for comments he made condemning France’s colonial past in Algeria.

On a visit to Algiers on Tuesday Macron said France’s history in Algeria was a “crime against humanity”. “It’s really barbaric and is part of that past that we must face up to also by apologising to those who were hurt,” he said.

And on Thursday, Marine Le Pen, leader of the Front National, said on Facebook: “Is there anything worse when you want to become president than going abroad to accuse the country you want to lead of crime against humanity?”

But Macron refused to back down, and in a video statement sent to Reuters, he said: “We must find the courage to call things by their name,” he said. “Are we condemned to forever live in the shadows of this traumatic experience for our two countries?”

Algerians lived under French rule for 132 years until the country won a bloody war of independence in 1962. The Algerian government says the conflict killed 1.5 million of its citizens.

Another rival for the presidency, conservative François Fillon, zeroed in on the row, saying in a campaign speech: “This dislike of our history, this continual repentance, is unworthy of a candidate for the presidency of the Republic.”

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Fillon, who last year likened France’s colonial past to a “cultural exchange”, suffered his own setback on Thursday when a financial prosecutor said that an investigation into fake work allegations concerning him and his wife, Penelope Fillon, would remain open.

A three-week-old scandal over hundreds of thousands of euros in taxpayers’ money that his wife was paid for work she may not have done has cost conservative Fillon his status as favourite to win the French presidency in May.

“It is my duty to affirm that the numerous elements collected [by investigators] do not, at this stage, permit the case to be dropped,” the prosecutor Éliane Houlette said in a statement after receiving an initial police report on the subject.

Fillon, who represents Les Républicains, had been the presidential frontrunner before the scandal, but polls now show that Macron has a strong chance of winning the French presidency in May.

The prosecutor did not announce any further steps, but among the choices before it are: dropping the case, taking it further by appointing an investigating magistrate or sending it straight to trial.

Fillon, 62, has said he would step down from the campaign should he be put under formal investigation, but his camp has also challenged the legitimacy of the inquiry. The first round of the election is less than 10 weeks away.

The candidate reiterated his criticism of the case in comments to the conservative newspaper Le Figaro on Thursday, saying that Houlette’s statement merely added to the “media circus” surrounding the affair.

He remained as determined as ever to continue his election campaign, he added.