At the Paris Court of Appeal,
“It was way too long. The president, François Reygrobellet, has just finished reading his report summarizing the “main axes” of the “Penelopegate” when François Fillon asks to speak. Before the debates get to the heart of the matter, the former prime minister asked the court of appeal for permission to read a “opening statement”. “My wife worked alongside me, it is indisputable,” he insists at the bar this Tuesday afternoon.
Hired as parliamentary assistant, Pénélope Fillon “assisted her within the framework of [s]we political commitment ”. “She was paid for her work as hundreds of other spouses were paid for strictly similar work,” he adds, noting that when he was elected to the National Assembly in 1981, ” more than half of the deputies employed a spouse or a member of their family as parliamentary collaborator ”.
Elected “eight times” to the National Assembly, François Fillon assures us that he was not a “fictitious deputy mainly concerned with money”. “This is what hurts me the most in the trial that is done to me today,” he continues. Before you castigate the Chained duck which revealed the affair during 2017. “Forty years of political life, forty years in the service of a city, a region, a country. Forty years of commitment erased by an article in a satirical newspaper and a dependent investigation freeing itself from all the necessary precautions when it comes to democracy. “
Dark suit and black mask, he then expresses a series of “regrets”. For the country “which was deprived in 2017 of the democratic debate to which it was entitled”, for its “political family, weakened exit” from this affair, and “for its children, its family, who suffered from the trial investigated by the media “.
A “discreet” work
“But I especially regret for my wife, because she was marked for life in this case, repeats the defendant. His name has been thrown to public opinion by media without ethics. “And the former deputy for Sarthe and Paris to conclude by addressing the court:” Whatever your decision, nothing can ever erase the violence of what she suffered with exemplary dignity. ”
Invited to answer the chairman’s questions, his wife, Penelope Fillon, however found it difficult to explain precisely what she was doing when she worked for him or for his deputy, Marc Joulaud, from June 2002. A job ” discreet ”which essentially consisted of rereading the speeches of her husband to whom she gave her“ appreciation ”, and processing mail sent by“ people in great distress ”.
“You have never been, Madam, to the National Assembly”, remarks the magistrate. “I did not need to go there, I was in the constituency,” replies Penelope Fillon who, she says, worked from their home in the Sarthe. “From 1998 to 2002, Penelope was my only collaborator in the field,” adds François Fillon. “Even so, if you had been in the National Assembly, that would have changed the terms of the debate …”, observes the president. When her husband was appointed to the government in 2002, she worked as a parliamentary assistant for her deputy, Marc Joulaud, also present on the bench. “He did not know the inhabitants”, explains Penelope Fillon. The president is surprised that her remuneration – which has been increased – has been negotiated by her husband. “It’s still surprising that a contract is signed under these conditions! “
Embarrassing confessions
Above all, he recalls on several occasions, no witness recalled, during the investigation, that Penelope Fillon occupied these functions. As for the “written records” proving that she has indeed carried out an activity justifying her salary, they are sorely lacking in the file. “I did not hide anything at all, explains Pénélope Fillon. But I did not go to people saying: “Hello, I am a parliamentary assistant”. “However, remarks once again François Reygrobellet, Penelope Fillon had entrusted to a journalist of the Sunday Telegraph : “I was never, in fact, been his assistant or anything like that. “
Follow the trial live on our journalist’s Twitter account @tibochevillard