French voters undecided days before vote
STRASBOURG: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is too extreme, but centrist Emmanuel Macron is too young. Conservative Francois Fillon cannot be trusted, Socialist Benoit Hamon is the establishment, and Communist-backed radical Jean-Luc Melenchon, too risky.
Just a week before the French cast their first votes for the next president, this is how the many undecided voters view this year’s cast of candidates: with abject disappointment.
Fillon’s campaign has been rocked by multiple scandals over expenses and conflicts of interest, including allegations that he gave his wife suspected fake jobs as a parliamentary assistant, for which she was paid a total of 680,000 euros.
As for Le Pen, the European Parliament has accused her far-right National Front (FN) of using funds allotted for parliamentary assistants to pay staff for party work in France.
She has dismissed the investigation into FN’s expenses, saying it is a plot to derail her campaign bid.
Just a week before the French cast their first votes for the next president, this is how the many undecided voters view this year’s cast of candidates: with abject disappointment.
Fillon’s campaign has been rocked by multiple scandals over expenses and conflicts of interest, including allegations that he gave his wife suspected fake jobs as a parliamentary assistant, for which she was paid a total of 680,000 euros.
As for Le Pen, the European Parliament has accused her far-right National Front (FN) of using funds allotted for parliamentary assistants to pay staff for party work in France.
She has dismissed the investigation into FN’s expenses, saying it is a plot to derail her campaign bid.
