Paris
Former prime minister Francois Fillon goes on trial in Paris on Monday over claims he embezzled more than a million euros in public funds by creating a fake job for his wife, a scandal that cost him his shot at the French presidency in 2017.
Investigators suspect that Fillon, 65, hired his Welsh-born wife Penelope as his parliamentary assistant between 1998 and 2013, without having her do any actual work.
The allegations that Penelope, who is also charged in the case, was paid up to 10,000 euros ($10,800) a month for little to no work buried Fillon’s presidential ambitions and caused his centre-right Republicans party to implode. With the career politician refusing to stand aside in the 2017 contest even after being charged, many right-wing voters drifted to the centrist party of Emmanuel Macron.—APP
