Paris (AFP)

After a long silence, François Fillon made his media comeback Thursday with a television interview in the form of a large oral, a few weeks before his trial which risks rekindling bad memories on the right.

The former presidential candidate and former Prime Minister, withdrawn from political life since his defeat in 2017, will be the exceptional guest of "Vous vous la parole" at 9:00 p.m. on France2.

On the program: 1 hour and 15 minutes of interview, "without opponent" other than the journalists Léa Salamé and Thomas Sotto, indicated on Monday the editor of the show, Alix Bouilhaguet.

"There will be a big interview phase around business, but we will also talk about the situation in France, governance" and "the international situation," she added.

The interview will also appear as a great oral three weeks before the trial of Mr. Fillon, for "embezzlement of public funds" in particular, which will be held from February 24 to March 11 before the Paris Criminal Court.

"François Fillon is committed to restoring what he is and who he is," assured Le Figaro, the boss of senators LR Bruno Retailleau, close to the former head of government.

Mr. Fillon, his wife Penelope and his former deputy to the Assembly Marc Joulaud will be tried in the case of alleged jobs of Penelope, for which she would have received more than a million euros between 1998 and 2013. The couple will also answer for "complicity and concealment of abuse of social goods" for a partially fictitious job at the Revue des Deux Mondes.

"I hope that Francois Fillon will be able to explain himself," said deputy LR Eric Woerth on SudRadio, for whom "part of the presidential election was completely skewed" in 2017 by this soap.

- "Shabby" -

In 2017, this resounding affair with multiple twists and turns had stopped the race for the presidency of the right-wing candidate, the favorite party in the polls, but finally eliminated in the first round.

For the Republicans who have continued to sink ever since, this sequence brings back bad memories, just before municipal elections which finally offer them the opportunity to raise their heads.

The date is also "to say the least surprising", said the president of LR Christian Jacob, who is serene: "not sure that it has an influence on the elections".

Others have trouble digesting the platform offered in prime time to the former candidate. "It is lousy. It sucks. It has no interest," storms an elected official for whom "Fillon has permanently damaged the right." "It won't matter, but it's dirty."

At the time, the cascading revelations had damaged the honest image of Mr. Fillon. The murderous formula he had used against Nicolas Sarkozy during the primary of the right - "who imagines de Gaulle indicted?" - came back to him like a boomerang.

The coup de grace came from the revelations of Robert Bourgi, a figure in the "Françafrique" networks, who boasted of having offered him two suits worth 13,000 euros.

The Republicans have struggled to get back on the horse ever since. But some want to believe that the trial "will turn the page".

That a "wounded man" considers "that he must speak in front of the French, it is logical, then the right looks ahead", assured Tuesday on RTL Damien Abad, the boss of the deputies LR.

Absent from the French media since 2017, Mr. Fillon had however given an interview in October to Swiss Radio and Television, where he compared the mobilization of "yellow vests" to that of the opponents of his own pension reform, in 2003. "Macron , he's a little player next door! " he had quipped.

Away from politics, Mr. Fillon is a partner in the management company Tikehau Capital and sits on the International Automobile Federation (FIA). He is also committed to Christians in the East.

And there is little chance that he will take advantage of the show on Thursday to announce his return to politics: in October he said on Swiss television that "no", it was unimaginable for him.

© 2020 AFP