franois fillon vows to stay in french presidential race even as he faces embezzlement charges videomr fillon the centerright candidate for the french presidency vowed to stay in the race even as he faces charges in a widening embezzlement investigationcreditcreditchristian hartmannreutersmarch 1 2017paris frances embattled centerright presidential candidate franois fillon defiantly vowed on wednesday to stay in the race even as he announced that he would be formally charged in a widening embezzlement investigationmr fillons announcement made at a news conference added another element of uncertainty to an already unsettled campaign and increased the likelihood that frances presidential race would be fought by two candidates from neither of the traditional mainstream partieswith formal charges looming that mr fillon paid his wife and children hundreds of thousands of euros from the public payroll for little or no work most analysts consider his chances of making it past the first round on april 23 in frances tworound election to be diminishedthat would leave the field open to the farright candidate of the national front marine le pen whose rise in polls has sent jitters through financial markets and immigrant suburbs her likely contender is emmanuel macron the former economy minister who is running as the candidate of his own political movementmr macron 39 is currently the favorite to defeat ms le pen 48 in the second round on may 7 but mr macron a former rothschild banker is untested and inexperienced politically his centrist program some of it in line with the socialist government he served is viewed as unappealing to parts of the rightleaning electorate the momentum in most of the polls is with hera top national front official florian philippot used a television interview after mr fillons appearance largely to attack mr macron a clear indication that ms le pen already considers him her principal opponenteven as mr fillon 62 is increasingly being written off he has doubled down on his defense yielding no ground to his criticsits fillons final bet said laurent bouvet a political scientist at the university of versailles stquentinenyvelines hes playing all or nothing the right the heart of the right the one that elected him and doesnt want le pen to sweep the stakes his bet is they wont abandon him in spite of all his legal problemsin another country the shadow hanging over mr fillon would most likely end a campaign for the highest office but in france legal problems even serious ones rarely end political careers even though the electorate appears to be showing in polls at least less tolerance than previously for accommodating financial misdeeds in high placeseven if he were to step aside his centerright republican party has few good options mr fillons two main challengers in the party primary both campaigned under the shadow of past and current investigationsthe runnerup in the primary alain jupp was convicted in a phony jobs scheme undertaken while he worked at city hall several decades ago nicolas sarkozy the former president who finished third