Paris (AFP)

Yesterday paragon of "exemplarity" to the presidential destiny, today judged for embezzlement of public funds, François Fillon saw his career explode with the Penelopegate where he trained his discreet wife.

"I dragged my family into a test of incredible violence and I have no desire to drag them into this violence again," said the 65-year-old former Prime Minister in late January during a rare interview on France 2.

Asked voice, austere appearance, François Fillon had then disputed each of the accusations of "Penelopegate", this alleged fictitious job case which took the name of his wife. A shame for those who said at the end of 2016 that "politics should not be mixed with private life".

Penelope Fillon, who would have received more than a million euros for parliamentary assistant jobs at the heart of the case, appears with him on Monday.

In the shadow of her husband, this 64-year-old Franco-Welsh woman with a classic look has always presented herself as a proud mother of having raised five children, a discreet "peasant", a lover of gardening and horse riding, " reserved and not very mundane ".

The "huge scandal" hurts him very much: "I felt like lightning was through me, this is what I experienced the worst in my life," she says.

In the Fillon trial, the case does not stop there: presumed fictitious jobs of their two elders, loan of 50,000 euros undeclared from a friend, two luxury suits offered by another ...

The succession of revelations at the start of 2017 put a stop to François Fillon's ascent to the Elysée Palace, which nevertheless seemed written after five years of Hollande's presidency.

The murderous formula he had used against Nicolas Sarkozy during the primary of the right - "who imagines de Gaulle indicted?" - comes back to him like a boomerang.

Just like his image of an honest man, "proud of his values", defending loud and clear the order, the family or the greatness of France.

- "Errors" -

Born on March 4, 1954 to a notary father and a historian mother, raised in a Catholic milieu with Gaullist-social convictions, this elegant man with a neat, not very expansive hairstyle, always cultivated discretion.

"My heritage is limited to my house, in the Sarthe", a mansion with 14 rooms, underline its detractors. "I have no apartment in Paris, no villa by the sea, no Ferrari hidden in the barn of my house," he said today.

If he no longer speaks, as at the time of the case, of "conspiracy" or of "black cabinet", François Fillon continues to proclaim it: "I was treated in an unfair manner, which was not normal ".

Stubborn according to his supporters, suicidal according to his detractors, this racing enthusiast made his first steps in politics as assistant to the deputy of a small town near Le Mans, Sablé-sur-Sarthe.

On the death of his mentor in 1980, François Fillon, who did not do the ENA, in 1981 became the youngest member of the National Assembly.

Political end according to some, opportunistic for others, he "is like a crocodile: he seems to be sleeping but is ready to eat anyone on the bank", confided in 2012 one of the ministers of his team.

From 1993 to 2005, he participated in all right-wing governments, sat in the Senate in 2005-2007, before becoming for five years head of the government of Nicolas Sarkozy.

His image of rigor and his energetic promises of recovery of the country allowed him to win the primary in 2016. Charged in March 2017 in the Penelopegate, he was eliminated in the first round of the presidential election and retired from political life.

"I will not try to return" affirmed on January 30 François Fillon, reconverted in finance and at the International Automobile Federation (FIA).

Before I admit it: "I surely made mistakes, but there is one thing I cannot bear, that is that people think that I am dishonest, or that I tried to cheat or to deceive the French because it's the opposite of my life. "

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