Fillon faces ‘fake job’ charges but stays in French campaign

French presidential candidate Francois Fillon announced on Wednesday that judges had summoned him to press charges over an expenses scandal but vowed to continue his campaign.

The 62-year-old conservative former premier was favourite at the start of the year to win the French presidency after clinching the nomination for the Republicans party in November.

But he has since been hit by a series of allegations that he paid his British-born wife Penelope and his children hundreds of thousands of euros since 1988 for allegedly fake parliamentary jobs.

Fillon said the charges were “entirely calculated to stop me being a candidate for the presidential election.”

“I won’t give in, I won’t surrender and I won’t withdraw,” he told a press conference on Wednesday.