French presidential candidate François Fillon has vowed to carry on campaigning despite being summoned by judges to face accusations of giving fake jobs to his wife and children.

Just weeks after he pledged to stand down if formally put under investigation, the beleaguered conservative candidate made what many saw as his last, determined stand on Wednesday.

At a hastily arranged press conference he lashed out at the legal system and the media, claimed he was being unfairly targeted, and accused judges and the press of attempting a “political assassination”.

The 62-year-old is accused of paying his British-born wife, Penelope, and two of his children hundreds of thousands of euros of taxpayers’ money as his parliamentary assistants in allegedly fictitious jobs.

He had been due to attend the annual farm fair in Paris on Wednesday, a rite of passage for all candidates, when the early-morning visit was cancelled without warning.

What is 'Penelopegate'? The scandal is centred on allegations that French presidential candidate François Fillon paid his British wife, Penelope, at least €680,000 (£577,000) of taxpayers’ money for a suspected fake parliamentary assistant job spanning 15 years. He is also being investigated over giving his children highly paid, allegedly fake jobs from state funds when they were still students. Although French politicians are allowed to employ family members, it is unclear what work Penelope did. Fillon, who once styled himself a sleaze-free 'Mr Clean' and denies that he or any of his family members ever broke the law, has been summoned to appear before judges on 15 March.

His team then summoned the press to his campaign HQ, leading to fevered speculation that Fillon was about to stand down. Instead, he came out fighting, insisting he had done nothing wrong and accusing the government, the legal system and the media of throwing over the presumption of innocence.

“It is, in effect, an assassination … but it’s not just me they are killing, it’s the presidential election,” he told journalists, striking a combative but sombre tone. “Yes, I will be a candidate to be president of the republic,” he told the packed press conference.

“I have not embezzled public funds. I entrusted, as do almost a third of MPs, work to my relatives because I knew I could rely on their loyalty and their ability. They did indeed work for me and I will prove it.

“From the beginning, despite what has been said, I have not been treated like any other [legal] party … the rule of law has been systematically broken. The press has repeated the investigators’ views and only theirs. The arguments I have presented haven’t been heard or broadcast. The presumption of innocence has completely and entirely disappeared.”

His attacks and refusal to stand down, after saying he would, prompted the resignation of a former government minister and high-profile member of his election team and a terse rebuke from the country’s justice minister.

“The independence of the justice system is a constitutional principle. The investigating judges will conduct their inquiries in all independence … and with respect to other parties and the presumption of innocence,” the ministry said in a statement.

Rivals denounced the violence of his talk of assassinations, coming just days after Fillon suggested France was in a climate of “quasi civil war”.

Benoît Hamon, the Socialist party candidate, said Fillon’s language showed an “incredible violence towards the judges and the justice system”. He said: “He talks of ‘political assassination’; the reality is that it’s the ongoing series around François Fillon’s affairs that is dumbing down the presidential campaign.”

Fillon said the decision to summon him on 15 March – two days before the official deadline for presidential candidates to register – was calculated to rule him out of the election. His wife has reportedly been summoned to appear before the judges on 18 March.

He said: “It’s for the French people, those who follow me and those who fight me, only universal suffrage can decide who will be the next president of the republic. I will not give up … I ask you to follow me. I will be there at the rendezvous with democracy that will decide our collective future.

“France is bigger than my errors … bigger than the bias of a large part of the press … I have totally decided to serve that France with all my strength. I say to you, in all seriousness, don’t be fooled, don’t let anyone deprive you of your choice.”

Afterwards, one of the key members of Fillon’s campaign team, Bruno Le Maire, who had previously publicly expressed his confidence in him, announced he would step down.

In a statement, Le Maire, a former government minister, referred to Fillon’s public promise on 26 January that if he was officially put under investigation he would withdraw his candidacy, writing: “I believe in keeping one’s word; it is necessary for political credibility.”

President François Hollande also called Fillon to order. “Being a presidential candidate doesn’t give one the authority to throw suspicion on the work of the police and judges, to create a climate of defiance that is not compatible with the spirit of responsibility or, worse still, to throw extremely serious accusations against the legal system and more widely our institutions,” Hollande said in a statement.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest François Fillon touches Fine the cow, symbol of the 2017 farm fair in Paris. His original visit to the show was postponed. Photograph: Christophe Ena/AP

Fillon won the centre-right Les Républicains’ party primaries last November. He campaigned on his “clean” scandal-free image, mocking his rival Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president, who is embroiled in several legal scandals, by asking: “Who could imagine General de Gaulle being put under investigation?” It was a taunt that would come back to haunt him.

In January, just weeks after winning the party presidential nomination, Fillon was hit by allegations he had paid his wife more than €680,000 (£582,000) of taxpayers’ money as his parliamentary assistant. He was also questioned over well-paid jobs for two of his children, Marie and Charles.

The centre-right Union of Democrats and Independents said it had suspended its alliance with Fillon. The party committee will meet next week to discuss whether to stop supporting him.



It is not illegal for French MPs to employ family members, but they are required to have a real job. Last week the financial state prosecutor’s office announced a full judicial inquiry into the allegations. On Wednesday, Fillon said his lawyers had informed him the case was being taken a step further with the summons, with a view to being arraigned by the three judges appointed to investigate the case.

Penelope Fillon has not been seen publicly since the scandal broke. She did not take part in a local council meeting at Solesmes, near the couple’s chateau in the Sarthe, where she is an elected councillor, on Monday evening.

There is no exact equivalent of mise en examen, or putting under formal investigation, in British or US legal systems; the nearest is being charged or arraigned. Only an investigating judge can decide to put a suspect under formal investigation, and only if he or she finds “serious and concordant” suggestions of law-breaking.

The “fake jobs” scandal has sent Fillon’s popularity plummeting. Recent polls have suggested that the far-right Front National candidate, Marine Le Pen, was likely to make it through to the final round of the election on 7 May, where she would face – and lose to – the independent centrist Emmanuel Macron.