The Economist reports:
One cannot lead France, he declared during the Republicans’ primary last year, unless one is “beyond reproach”. It turned out that Mr Fillon had employed his wife, Penelope, possibly from as far back as 1988, for a total pre-tax sum of over €800,000 ($863,000), as well as two of his children when they were law students. This is not illegal; one French deputy in five employs a relative. But the newspaper could find no trace that Mrs Fillon had done any work. And in an old video clip she said had never been her husband’s assistant.