“The main role that I had entrusted to my wife is to be present on the ground,” said the former prime minister during his appeal trial.
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“Pénélope was working on my local site.” At his appeal trial in Paris for suspicion of his wife’s fictitious jobs, former Prime Minister François Fillon defended the character on Monday, November 22. “essential” missions carried out by his wife in Sarthe. “The main role that I had entrusted to my wife is to be present on the ground”, of “create this personal bond, this bond of trust” with the locals, he added. “It is a permanent job of networking the constituency (…) which, exercised over a long period, is irreplaceable.”
Replace it at meals for elders, receive residents in their homes, sort mail and detect “claims” or some “broncas”… So many activities that Pénélope Fillon carried out, according to her husband, which may seem far removed from national issues but are “indispensable” because “it gives you your legitimacy” with voters. The president of the court however noted that very few people knew that she was his parliamentary assistant and underlined in the turn of a question the “strong intangible tone” of this “collaboration”. “The fact that it is my wife who represents me, it is better that it is my collaborator”, replied François Fillon. And to recognize: “We could have done it differently.”
The former right-wing presidential candidate in 2017, whose campaign was marked by the explosion of the “Penelopegate”, also criticized an investigation which “should never have happened” in this “context”. the “climate of heightened passion of a presidential campaign influences the testimonies”, which are loaded “ulterior motives, whether positive or negative”, he argued.