What is ‘Penelopegate’?
The scandal is centred on allegations that French presidential candidate Francois Fillon paid his British wife, Penelope, at least €680,000 (Dh2.6 million) of taxpayers’ money for a suspected fake parliamentary assistant job spanning 15 years. He is also being investigated over giving his children highly paid, allegedly fake jobs from state funds when they were still students. Although French politicians are allowed to employ family members, it is unclear what work Penelope did. Fillon, who once styled himself a sleaze-free ‘Mr Clean’ and denies that he or any of his family members ever broke the law, has been summoned to appear before judges on 15 March.
