French Presidential Candidate François Fillon

As voting days are coming closer, I have begun to more pay attention to the presidential candidates, their stances, and the public's feelings towards the impending election. Recently, one of the candidates, François Fillon, came under intense scrutiny after an old interview with his wife resurfaced. The interview lead to investigation into whether or not Fillon's wife was paid illegally for the work she did for her husband several years ago. The investigation has spread to see if Fillon's two children were also paid illegally for the same reason.

To my surprise, it is legal for politicians to hire their family members to work for them as long as they are specifically doing what they were hired for. The family is under investigation because his wife alone was paid nearly 830,000 euros (over $878,000) when she was hired while Fillon was a senator. She was hired legally, but people are beginning to believe Fillon took advantage of the situation and overpaid his family with public money. Voters are now viewing this candidate in a negative light because he appears to have supplied his family with high paying jobs more for their own benefit than for the quality of their work. 

This could be a pivotal point in the election as Fillon has been estimated to be the best opposing candidate to the popular far-right leader, Marine Le Pen. Although the scenario's are different, this situation that is unfolding reminds me of Hillary Clinton being probed for her use of her private email while she held office. After she became under investigation, some of her followers felt that they could trust the other candidate more, which may be one reason she lost the election.

I am interested to see how the French people take this information as they search for a candidate to vote for in April and May. It may be that this could ruin Fillon's chances of winning and I am intrigued to see how the situation unfolds.