François Fillon, presidential pariah from the right

François Fillon, former candidate for the presidential election of December 2016. His trial for embezzlement of public funds opens this Monday, February 24. AFP / Joël Saget

Text by: Anne Soetemondt Follow

François Fillon at the helm. It is this Monday that begins the trial of the right-wing presidential candidate 2017. The former Prime Minister and his wife are on trial, three years after the decisive revelations of the Canard Enchaîné, for embezzlement of public funds. A trial that promises to be extraordinary. At the height of the vertiginous fall of the one to whom the Élysée seemed promised six months before the second round. Back on the journey of a man who became the gravedigger of the French right.

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Everything schuss towards victory. December 2016. A few days after his surprise success in the primary on the right, François Fillon puts on his skis and goes to the mountains. The Élysée Palace is therefore close at hand for the former Prime Minister of Nicolas Sarkozy. The right has found a champion to regain power after the quinquennium of François Hollande. Confident of him, the candidate offers himself vacations.

Everything derailed on January 24 when Le Canard Enchaîné revealed that Pénélope Fillon had been employed as a parliamentary assistant to her husband and at the Revue des Deux Mondes . Was she really working? Wonders the satirical newspaper. The next day, François Fillon spoke of “ a campaign of slander ”. Justice opens an investigation. The Fillon affair was born, it will be fed by regular revelations in the press. The explosion in opinion is immediate.

"Give back the money"

It is the beginning of a way of the cross for the man who had made integrity his trademark to beat among other things a multi-charged Nicolas Sarkozy who he had not hesitated to attack by asking : " Who imagines General de Gaulle indicted? Summoned to explain himself, the candidate invites himself at 8 p.m. on TF1 the day after the publication of the article in Le Canard Enchaîné . While he is there to defend his wife, François Fillon makes a first mistake by revealing that he also employed two of his children. The second error comes a few minutes later, when he says: " The only thing that would prevent me from being a candidate is if my honor was achieved, if I was indicted ". Especially since the images, a few days later, during a meeting, of François Fillon's wife overwhelm him more than they help him. Usually in the shadows, Pénélope Fillon is pushed into the spotlight, haggard and on the verge of tears.

In a free fall in the polls, François Fillon never lets go. Welcomed by concerts of saucepans at each of its meetings, booed with cries of " Give back the money ", the quickly given candidate beaten from the first round attacked the press and the justice system, denouncing a " coup d ' Institutional state ”.

Plan B

Expected March 1 at the Salon de l'Agriculture, François Fillon canceled his visit at the last minute and convened an improvised press conference a few hundred meters away, at the party headquarters, rue de Vaugirard. He announced that he was summoned for an indictment, but that he would not withdraw, " because beyond my person, it is democracy that is challenged ". Then begins a long series of defections. Bruno Le Maire, Gérald Darmanin… Several heavyweights are leaving the countryside. On the opinion side, it is the costume affair , revealed by Robert Bourgi, which carries the final blow.

Should we change candidates a few weeks before the first round? The question of an alternative agitates minds. Alain Juppé, unfortunate finalist of the primary? François Baroin? Nicolas Sarkozy? The candidate responds with a meeting at the Trocadéro, which fills up. At 8 p.m. of France 2, he spikes those who wish to withdraw: " No one can stop me from being a candidate ".

►To (re) listen : François Fillon, candidate to the end

François Fillon was finally eliminated in the first round, with 20.01% of the vote. An honorable score, but a slap for the right which was never absent from the second round of the presidential election under the Fifth Republic.

"He killed us"

Three years later, the prospect of François Fillon's appearance in court is far from leaving a mark on the right. Because the party has still not recovered from its defeat in the presidential election and the victory of Emmanuel Macron. In one , one speaks of a " non-event "; but off , we cringe. Especially since François Fillon did not choose silence to prepare for his trial. His invitation a few weeks ago on France 2, in prime time, is a " scandal ", even some LR executives judge, who are surprised that a man " who killed the right " still dares to " open his mouth ". Especially since the timing is bad. The trial begins less than a month before the municipal elections.

Symbol of the desire to turn the page Fillon: the new ideological orientations chosen by Les Républicains. Exit the rigor or the elimination of the 500,000 civil servants of the Fillon program. The right returns to the social. By bringing in the leadership of the youth party like Aurélien Pradié, which works on disability and violence against women, the new boss, Christian Jacob, sends a signal to the few political friends who remain to the former candidate: " Fillon , it's over . "

(With AFP)

To (re) read: The six weeks that poisoned François Fillon's campaign

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