2023-09-28 22:03:28
François Fillon, before a hearing before the commission of inquiry of the National Assembly, in Paris, May 2, 2023. CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON / EPA
Who still cares, in the Les Républicains (LR) party, about the fate of François Fillon? If the Constitutional Council opened the way, Thursday, September 28, to a possible third trial requested by the former prime minister in the affair of his wife’s fictitious jobs, the legal future of the unsuccessful candidate in the 2017 presidential election seems to leave his former political family indifferent. Contacted by The world, its president, Eric Ciotti, did not wish to speak. Olivier Marleix, boss of LR deputies, did not respond to our requests.
Read also: Fillon affair: the Constitutional Council opens the way to a new trial in the fictitious jobs affair, which also applies to Nicolas Sarkozy in the wiretapping affair
For his part, the historical “fillonist”, Bruno Retailleau, boss of the LR senators, hardly dwells on the decision of the wise men, but simply notes that it is a question “good news for François Fillon”. The latter was sentenced, in May 2022, by the Paris Court of Appeal to four years in prison, including one year, and a fine of 375,000 euros in the so-called “Penelope Gate” affair.
In December 2022, the former prime minister – officially retired from political life since November 2017 – resumed his card with LR, in order to support Mr. Retailleau in his campaign for the presidency of the party. Despite this discreet and above all friendly support, the senator from Vendée had to lose in the second round to Mr. Ciotti. Within the LR leadership, Othman Nasrou is one of the few to react to the decision of the Constitutional Council. “Many among us believe that the acceleration of the judicial calendar at the time was not simply the result of chance”says the deputy general secretary of LR, echoing the theses brandished by LR at the time of an alleged plot directed from the Elysée.
“The dolorist right”
Valérie Boyer was the first right-wing personality to react on X (formerly Twitter) to bring “his friendly support for François Fillon”, for which she was the spokesperson during the 2017 presidential campaign. Rejoicing that a third trial could be held if the Court of Cassation decides, Senator LR of Bouches-du-Rhône suspects “interference in a democratic election” and regrets that ” We [soyons] missed out on a great president”. An opinion shared on X by another senator from Bouches-du-Rhône, Stéphane Le Rudulier: “In 2017, France lost the opportunity to elect a great statesman. The conditions of his elimination and the cabal of which he is the victim are shameful. »
Still, the Republicans seem to have turned the page on Fillon, whose name is no longer mentioned in speeches, and whose image is tarnished by his links with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. “If I want to sell rillettes on Red Square, I will sell rillettes on Red Square”he declared in May, before the National Assembly’s commission of inquiry into foreign interference, in reference to his reconversion to the service of two Russian companies in the hydrocarbons and petrochemical sectors, until invasion of Ukraine.
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