French right in trouble as Fillon wife interview aired

French presidential candidate François Fillon suffered yet another embarrassing revelation on Thursday as a TV station promised to broadcast video shot in 2007 in which his wife denied ever having been his parliamentary assistant. Fillon's campaign has been torpedoed by charges that penelope Fillon was employed in that role but appeared not to have done any work for her salary.

François Fillon at a business fair on Thursday Reuters/Benoit Tessier

One of France's main investigative news programmes, Envoyé Special, said it would air previously unseen footage on Thursday of Fillon's British-born wife Penelope talking to a journalist in 2007.

"Several interesting phrases" feature in the long-forgotten interview, including a statement that she had never been her husband's parliamentary assistant, presenter Elise Lucet told the AFP news agency.

Penelope Fillon also said she had never been involved with her husband's public relations, either.

"We are certain that she was paid for four years as her husband's parliamentary assistant, from 1998 to 2002," Lucet commented.

The British journalist who wrote the text version of the interview for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Kim Willsher, told AFP she did not recall the phrase in question and that she had never seen the complete video.

The interview was "not a political interview, it was a 'wife of' piece," she said.

Supporters call for fightback

The revelations have thrown Fillon's campaign into crisis and pushed the candidate to below 20 percent in the latest opinion polls, meaning he would not be able to stand in the second, deciding round.

Georges Fenech, a supporter of former president Nicolas Sarkozy who Fillon beat to the nomination as the Republicans party candidate, has called for an emergency meeting of the party's national committee.

But Fillon’s supporters were still backing their candidate.

“It’s out of the question to be on the defensive in this affair,” Republicans MP Eric Woerth told RFI. “It’s been fabricated, we’re not going to let ourselves be rolled around by news like this, we’re not going to let them steal the presidential election from us. “

And another high-profile Fillon supporter, Eric Ciotti, called on party members to keep their cool.

Ciotti said he was shocked by Fenech's statement that the result of last month's primary is now redundant.

But for Bruno Lemaire, who is in charge of international questions in Fillon’s team, the candidate must speak out.

“He has to explain, now that some practises have shocked people,” he said. “The sums in question have shocked many French people.”

The primary runner-up on Wednesday said he would not be a "plan B" candidate if Fillon drops out of the race.

Public disillusioned

People on the Paris street's saw no way out for the Republicans.

"If he withdraws, who’ll take over?" asked Benédicte. "Maybe Juppé but his ideas aren’t at all the same."

 “Stay or go, I don’t know," said middle-class pensioner Suzanne. "But what I know is that whether what he did was legal or not, it shows his greed and I’ve made a note of that. He made reference to General de Gaulle and I can’t see him doing anything like that."

But she could not see anyone who could take Fillon’s place, she added. "And that’s the problem."

"I think public opinion will turn against him and so he won’t go through to the elections," commented Augustin, a man in his 30s, queuing to buy a sandwich. "He’s not showing the example of what he said during the debate, it’s not honorable of him. If what he’s accused of is proven to be true, it’s just another example of problems in politics in France today."

Not everyone was disillusioned with the former prime minister, hoewever.

"I think he should keep candidacy despite stories about him and his wife," said Alexandre, a young professional in leather jacket and trainers. "We don’t care - what counts is his ideas.

"There’s no relation between being exemplarary and having people work for you. It’s a false debate, but we’re specialists of that here in France."

And political scientist Thomas Guenolé believes the public will forgive Fillon if he apologises.

“People are not so cruel, people can accept aplogies, if he looks sincere and he says 'Ok, I messed up, now I’m going to be careful, I’m really sorry'," he told RFI. "It works in millions of families."