Paris
President Emmanuel Macron has ordered an investigation into claims that prosecutors were pressured to conclude a fraud inquiry into his main conservative opponent in the 2017 presidential election. Charges that François Fillon, a former prime minister, had misused public funds changed the course of the race and paved the way for the victory of Mr Macron, then a relative political unknown. Mr Fillon, one of the big names of French conservatism, had been considered the frontrunner. But the allegations that he paid his Welsh-born wife Penelope more than €1 million of taxpayers’ money for a job she never did destroyed his 35-year political career. When the couple stood trial in February, Mr Fillon said he was the victim of a political hit job, and claimed he had “already been judged guilty by a court of the media”. With a verdict due at the end of this month, Eliane Houlette, the former chief financial prosecutor, who handled the case, told a parliamentary hearing that she had been subjected to “enormous pressure [and] very strict oversight” by more senior criminal prosecutors to bring charges quickly. AFP
