France's scandal-hit Fillon faces new calls to quit presidential race

Paris: Heavyweight centrist Francois Bayrou joined calls on Sunday for French presidential candidate Francois Fillon to withdraw from the race, as his own conservative camp mounted pressure on the back of a deepening financial scandal around his family.
Fillon, 62, has seen his approval ratings slide since satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaine reported on January 25 he had paid his wife hundreds of thousands of euros of parliamentary money for work she may not have done. Bayrou has yet to endorse a candidate.
A respected figure, he has run unsuccessfully for president three times in the past and carries a core vote of about 6 per cent. He said he would not align with the centre-right if Fillon remained candidate. "He has no other alternative," Bayrou told media outlets Le Grand Jury RTL-Le Figaro-LCI on Sunday when asked if Fillon should drop his bid.
Two weeks ago Fillon was the election frontrunner and seemed poised for an easy ride into the Elysee palace in the spring elections. But now he cannot be sure of reaching the second round. The latest major survey of voting intentions showed the former conservative prime minister trailing in third place behind far-right leader Marine Le Pen and independent Emmanuel Macron.
Both Le Pen and Macron campaigned in the city of Lyon at the weekend. Fillon, the mainstream centre-right Republicans party nominee, maintains his wife Penelope carried out real work as his parliamentary assistant. He has said he will only drop his presidential bid if he is placed under formal investigation. But a growing number of party grandees and allies outside say the damage has been done to his reputation already.
"One cannot come up with a programme that requires sacrifices from everyone, especially from those who are at the bottom of the pyramid, while reserving privileges for those who ... have power," Bayrou said. Bayrou said that he would back Alain Juppe, another former prime minister who Fillon beat for the conservatives ticket, if Fillon pulled out and Juppe was named to replace him.