Fillon struggles to save presidential bid

French rightwing candidate Francois Fillon battled to save his scandal-hit presidential bid on Wednesday as disastrous new polling numbers and party colleagues increased pressure on him to step aside. After a week of damaging revelations that the 62-year-old former prime minister employed his family members in parliament, a new poll Wednesday showed him crashing out of the election in April.
Fillon has been favourite to be France's next leader since November when he clinched the nomination for the Republicans party, but the survey suggested for the first time he would be defeated in the first round of the election.
The main beneficiary from his woes appears to be Emmanuel Macron, the 39-year-old independent centrist who was seen advancing to the second round in May to face far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
"We know where this affair comes from, it comes from the government, it comes from the left," Fillon told Republicans lawmakers in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, according to those present.
He pleaded with them to "hold out for two weeks" until a judicial investigation into the allegedly fake parliamentary job of his British-born wife Penelope had been completed.
Fillon has admitted to employing Penelope and two of his children during his time in parliament, with the newspaper Le Canard Enchaine reporting they earned pre-tax income of around 900,000 euros ($970,000). But Penelope is accused of having barely worked for her salary, which reportedly reached 10,000 euros a month in 2007, leading to an investigation into the possible misuse of public funds.
In addition, Penelope worked at a literary review owned by a billionaire friend of her husband's where she allegedly earned another 100,000 euros in 2012 and 2013.
After judicial investigators searched parliament and interviewed Fillon and his wife at length this week, cracks are starting to show in the increasingly anxious Republicans party.
"Fillon's dead. His DNA was probity. Everything's falling apart," said one MP known to be close to former president Nicolas Sarkozy, whom Fillon defeated in the Republicans primary last year.
His usually loyal supporter Bruno Le Maire admitted publicly that the amount of money involved "is shocking for a lot of French people." The former prime minister was mobbed by reporters at a business fair on Wednesday.