"We can clearly see that it was a political provocation in the case with Fillon when we recall the situation with Jerome Cahuzac, the former French Socialist budget minister, who resigned in March 2013 after French website Mediapart claimed that he had hidden over 600 hundred euros from France’s tax authorities. Despite some similarities, the biggest difference is that it took over six month for the French prosecutors to launch a probe in Cahuzac's case. It took only 6 hours to launch an investigation in Fillon's case. I have never seen them working so quick," Mariani said.
When asked whether some political forces could be behind this publication, the lawmaker stated that this data was managed by the administration of the National Assembly which is under the presidency of the Socialist party. "It proofs nothing but those who released the article had to get access to the documents," he said.
Mariani noted that this was not the first case of a parliament official hiring a family member for an assistant role.
"Members of the parliament have a right to hire assistants paid by the Parliament and, in fact, 20 percent of the members of the Parliament hire their wives and children. Everything is very transparent and legal. For example, the president of the National Assembly [Socialist party's Claude Bartolone] works with his wife too. In my opinion, these allegations will be forgotten when he proves that his wife had a real job but at the moment all candidates try to use it against him," Mariani concluded.
The French presidential elections will take part on April 23, with the run-off scheduled for May 7, and Fillon is expected to face Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, as well as former Minister of Economy Emmanuel Macron running as the candidate from self-founded En Marche party, Jean-Luc Melenchon as another independent candidate, and either Benoit Hamon or Manuel Valls from the Socialist Party.
