Top French Conservatives 'united around François Fillon'

An emergency meeting of the French conservative party's leadership unanimously backed François Fillon as candidate for the presidential election, Senate leader Gérard Larcher said, despite a scandal over alleged misuse of public funds.

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"The Republicans are united around François Fillon," Larcher told reporters, after telling fellow party officials behind closed doors: "The debate is over".

The conservatives are re-launching Fillon's campaign, party chief Bernard Accoyer added.

Once the frontrunner, Fillon is mired in a scandal over public money he paid his wife to be his parliamentary assistant. He denies allegations she did little work for the money, but suffered a serious blow last week when he learned he could be placed under formal investigation for misuse of public funds.

'My candidacy... the only legitimate one': Fillon

Fillon had urged his conservative party on Monday to rally around him, saying he was the only legitimate candidate despite calls by many in his camp for him to pull out of the French presidential race over allegations of misuse of public funds.

"It is time for everybody to get their act together and come back to their senses," he told senior party members gathered to discuss the crisis, according to a text.

Fillon, who overwhelmingly won primaries organized by the Republicans party and their allies in November, added: "I call on all the women and men of goodwill to rally, respect the message our voters sent during the primaries and unite behind my candidacy, which is the only legitimate one."

Less than 50 days from the election, opinion polls show 63-year-old Fillon — once the election frontrunner — crashing out in the first round. They also show an overwhelming majority of French wanted him to drop out of the election.

Former French prime minister Alain Juppé had earlier on Monday ruled out replacing scandal-hit Fillon in the coming presidential election but offered no alternative candidates.

Polls have shown that Juppé, who is 71 and lost to the more right-wing Fillon in their party's primaries, would have made the second round comfortably.

"François Fillon... had a boulevard [to the presidency] in front of him," Juppé said in the city of Bordeaux. "The instigation of judicial investigations against him and his defence based on a supposed plot and political assassination have brought him to a dead end."