MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The news comes as Francois Fillon refused to quit the presidential race amid scandal raging over an alleged fake employment of the presidential candidate's wife.
“I told him that he should continue until the end … It is up to him to decide,” Fillon’s spouse told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper in her first public comments since the fake job allegations emerged.
She denied fake employment accusations and said that she worked for her husband and the inhabitants of Sarthe region.
The financial prosecutors opened an inquiry into Fillon's wife case on January 25 after the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine reported that she had been paid up to $8,500 per month when she worked as her husband’s assistant between 1998 and 2012 and received a $5,400 gross monthly salary at the magazine, owned by Fillon's friend.
A new poll by Ifop for Journal du Dimanche newspaper revealed that more than two thirds of French voters want The Republicans' (LR) candidate to withdraw from the ongoing presidential race.
At the same time, The Republicans party's Nicolas Dhuicq told Sputnik on Friday that the majority of the party members who supported Fillon are "still behind him."
The first round of the French presidential elections is scheduled for April 23, with the run-off slated for May 7.
