Beleaguered French politician Francois Fillon on Sunday declared, "no one can stop" his bid for the presidency after a mass rally attended by thousands in Paris
French presidential election candidate for the right-wing Les Republicains (LR) party Francois Fillon. Pic/AFP
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Paris: Beleaguered French politician Francois Fillon on Sunday declared, "no one can stop" his bid for the presidency after a mass rally attended by thousands in Paris. He insisted he would not be standing down during an interview on French television, despite growing calls for him to quit the race, BBC reported.
Fillon, once the favourite to win the election, has been under fire since a French satirical weekly reported that he had paid his wife and two of his five children about one million euros ($1.062 million) for their jobs as parliamentary assistants. However, there was no evidence showing that Fillon's wife had really worked.
Fillon faces a criminal investigation over the payments. He suffered a severe setback this week after The Republicans party senior chiefs suspended their support for his bid and are mulling a Plan B. Fillon had earlier told tens of thousands of supporters he would be cleared over allegations he had paid his family for work they did not do.
But Fillon was in a defiant mood during in an interview on Sunday evening. "No one today can stop me being a candidate," he said. He said he was "not autistic" and was able to listen to criticism and understand the difficulties his campaign faced. However, he rejected the idea of being replaced by Juppe.
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