France's Francois Fillon Hit With New Allegations Over Wife's Employment

Paris: The satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine wrote on Tuesday that the wife of French presidential candidate Francois Fillon worked as his parliamentary aide for longer than he has admitted and was paid 331,000 more euros for the role than it originally reported. In an article last week that threw frontrunner Fillon's campaign off track, Le Canard said Penelope Fillon was paid a total of 500,000 euros for many years as the assembly assistant of Mr Fillon, but could find no trace of her having done any real work.

On Tuesday, Le Canard, which has a history of unearthing scandals in French politics, said Penelope Fillon was paid more for that job than it wrote in its edition last week, reaching a total of 831,440 euros ($897,456) gross.

Mr Fillon has denied any wrongdoing and says the work was real. He told TF1 television last week that she was paid from 1997.

Le Canard wrote on Tuesday that she was also employed as parliamentary assistant from 1988 to 1990.

Mr Fillon has not confirmed or denied last week's numbers and his team could not immediately be reached for comment on Le Canard's latest report. His British-born wife has not commented at all.

Mr Fillon had said last week that he had also at some point employed two of his grown children when he was a senator but gave no figures. Le Canard wrote on Tuesday that his children were paid a combined 84,000 euros.

Le Canard has also written that Penelope Fillon was paid another 100,000 euros for a job at a cultural magazine.