Candidates for Presidency Brought France to a Fever Pitch

Prior to elections, France is being shaken by new scandals. The press continues to attack the candidate from the Republican Party François Fillon. On Tuesday, the satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné published the information that in 2013 Fillon did not declare a 50 thousand euro loan. The loan was returned a long time ago, but the issue is still being dragged in today. The acting president Hollande is also participating in the election battle in a roundabout way. In an interview to the newspaper Le Monde he acknowledged that the danger of victory of National Front's leader Marine Le Pen is quite real. Hollande already almost openly appeals not to vote for Le Pen. It gives Hollande's protege, ex-Minister of Economy Emmanuel Macron, an advantage. According to the rating, he is already close to the last months' leader Marine Le Pen. Anastasia Popova reports from Paris about how the French race has been going this week. Pierre, a publisher from Barr, is now spending his time not on business, but on keeping track of all political strife. The turnover of his company is about a quarter of a million euros per year. Stacks of papers mixed with books. The whole office is filled up with them. Entrepreneurs, he said, are the ones to suffer the most from bureaucracy. And the presidential candidates do not say a word about this. The only thing they do is wage war with one another. Today each camp is trying to find compromising evidence on one another, because at the level of ideas or the potential to act they are all equally empty. They do not have basic ideas and opportunities, so they are having scandals with each other, and we are all tired of it. About 40% of the French are confused and still do not know who to vote for. There was no clarity about who would eventually become the right-wing candidate. After continuous attempts of the French press to cut the ground from under François Fillon, a decisive statement was made by Alain Juppé, the mayor of Bordeaux, who was actively pushed to speak out against his colleague. As for us, the rightists and the centrists, we are a mess. I confirm, and this is the final decision, that I will not put forward my candidacy. I repeat, it's too late for me. But, of course, it's not too late for France. Though the words are tough, they put an end to speculation. The planned meeting between Sarkozy, Juppé and Fillon in order to find a way out of the crisis was eventually canceled. At the party meeting the winner of the primaries was unanimously supported. François Fillon remains a legitimate candidate. The decision to leave can only be made by him, but this is no longer the issue. All the efforts are directed towards the election campaign. Here, in the headquarters of the Republicans, a new team was formed. And after that the journal Le Canard Enchaîné published another damaging material. In 2013, Fillon allegedly received an interest-free loan of 50 thousand euros from billionaire Marc Lacharrière and didn’t declare the money. A couple of dozens of people are greeting François Fillon at the entrance to Micropolis this way. A pan became a new symbol of protest against corruption. I think that now people will vote against everyone, because none of the candidates represents my interests, especially Fillon. For me, his guilt has already been proven. However, an investigation is still under way. His rating, according to different estimates, is at the level of 20%. Cases that have been dragging on for a long time, do not worry me. They have nothing to do with today. It’s 2017, France is in decline, we need to quickly give it a boost. This Wednesday François Fillon will have to appear in court, where he can be formally charged with possibly fictitious work done by his wife Penelope as an assistant. The liberal turn in the economy, the reduction of civil servants, conservative family values, dialogue with Russia. Fillon considers these proposals as the only alternative to the National Front, which is currently supported by a third of the French. Acting President François Hollande, having multiply interfered in the race, also proclaimed his main task to be preventing Marine Le Pen's victory I'm looking at the ratings, because they confirm that now is the very moment for my candidacy, it's very solid. Using immunity she refused to testify on the case about her work as an assistant in the European Parliament. Now, even artistic cinema is against her. The film "At Home" has been released. It is a caricature on the National Front, the main character of which is a blonde nurse who brings up two children. She is nominated in local elections and then manipulates public opinion in different ways. The National Front has already expressed its outrage. Marine Le Pen, without paying attention, continued her campaign in the south of France, where her supporters and opponents had to be separated by a police cordon. What worries me is that no one wants to talk about immigration. Macron loves mass immigration, he likes Germany's policy, which forces the whole Europe to experience an unprecedented migration crisis. According to recent polls, independent candidate Emmanuel Macron can outrun her for the first time in the first round. He is a complete opposite of Le Pen. She offers an exit from the EU, he, on the contrary, a rapprochement. The Mediapart agency published an analysis of his proposals on pensions, unemployment and finance. All the reforms are simply copied word-for-word from the requirements that the European Council has been proposing to France for several years. No wonder that Macron is warmly supported by the European Commission. However, compromising information has been already found on him as well, a figure which is relatively new in politics. Le Canard Enchaîné weekly alleges that, while still being a minister, Macron arranged a meeting with businessmen in Las Vegas worth 380 thousand euros. The money was given to the Havas agency without announcing a tender. The prosecution is checking this information, but it decided to ignore another larger-scale story. We decided to take a look at his declaration. It turns out that Macron earned more than three million euros in three years from 2010 to 2013. When he joined the government, he had no more than 150 thousand, 50 thousand of which was on the bank account. We naturally started asking how it could happen. It appears that he either spent one and a half thousand euros a day or evaded taxes. In 2014 the same question was asked by the same Le Canard Enchaîné. Where did the rest of the money go? Dannemarie's mayor does not exclude the fact that, just like the former budget minister Jerome Cahuzac, he could have transferred his funds abroad to receive interest and not pay taxes. Macron himself assures that there is no money, he simply spent everything quickly. The largest investment, according to Macron, was made by him in 2015 in the densely populated 15th district of Paris. There, he bought an apartment of 83 square meters for an unspeakably huge amount, in the opinion of the satirical weekly, of 890 thousand euros. It turns out that one square meter in his apartment cost about 10 thousand euros, while in all other houses, the price was much lower. The authors of the article ask themselves, whether he is a bad investment banker or he intentionally inflated the price. Another 300 thousand euros was allegedly invested by Macron in the furnishing of his wife Brigitte's house. He did not present any evidence for it either. Although all the accusations against him come from the French, Macron blames the Russian media, in particular, the Sputnik agency, for disseminating compromising information. All the publications that are on our website are either articulated by our speakers on air, since we have radio. It is obvious that we are not claiming anything ourselves. Or there are publications of other well-known French media, respected French media, which obtain the information their own way. France is in fever. Socialist candidate Benoît Hamon refuses to introduce an unconditional base income. Unknown François Asselineau, who promotes his ideas through social networks and is a tough critic of the US, demanding withdrawal from NATO and the EU, suddenly becomes another presidential candidate. The presidential race is becoming more and more unpredictable. It is very difficult to determine who will become the winner.