Fillon case: Emmanuel Macron seizes the Council of the magistrature

Former Prime Minister and 2017 presidential candidate François Fillon. STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP

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The President of the French Republic wants to know whether justice has been able to investigate completely in the fictitious jobs case of the wife of François Fillon, an unsuccessful candidate in the 2017 presidential election, a case that turned the tide of the countryside. This follows statements made by the former prosecutor who investigated this case.

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Was there or was there not political pressure on the justice system? This is the question to be answered by the Superior Council of the Magistrature. A question that arises after the disturbing remarks made on June 10 by the ex-national financial prosecutor Eliane Houlette, who affirmed that the public prosecutor's office had exercised "  a very close control  " on his instruction of the Fillon file, in 2017 .

" Distorted  " remarks  , which she "  regretted  " the next day in a press release. According to the former magistrate, it was completely independently that she decided to indict François Fillon, the pressures they would have suffered "  were purely procedural  ".

Nevertheless, these statements arouse the excitement of the political class and the clan of François Fillon, who always denounced a political instrumentalization to defeat the one who was then presented as the favorite of the election.

What he "  sensed  " is now "  established  ": "  The investigation did not follow a normal course  ," says his lawyer this Saturday in Le Figaro . Emmanuel Macron, who took advantage of the weakening of candidate Fillon in 2017, said in a statement that it is "  essential to remove any doubt about the independence and impartiality of justice in this case  ".

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  • France
  • François Fillon
  • Justice