Fillon’s party calls for unity as loan allegations surface

Embattled French presidential hopeful Francois Fillon received an interest-free, undeclared loan of 50,000 euros from a billionaire friend in 2013, according to the Canard Enchaine weekly.

Francois Fillon, former French prime minister, member of the Republicans political party and 2017 presidential election candidate of the French centre-right attends a political rally in Nimes, France, March 2, 2017. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier

Fillon did not report the loan to a state transparency watchdog, the weekly said in its edition to appear Wednesday, adding that Fillon's lawyer told the paper the loan had been repaid.

This comes as friends and detractors of Francois Fillon sought to bridge their deep divisions and put the French conservative candidate's presidential campaign back on the rails on Tuesday after deciding to stick with him despite a damaging financial scandal.

A member of Fillon's team said reconciliation talks would begin with discontented centrists of the UDI party, who announced last week that they were withdrawing support for Fillon and his party, The Republicans.

Others members of his campaign team went on radio to deliver a call for unity, saying victory was still feasible.

"The page has turned," Bruno Retailleau, Fillon's campaign coordinator, told Radio Classique.

Fillon, at one point the favorite, has sunk to third place in opinion polls as he faces an investigation into allegations he paid his wife Penelope hundreds of thousands of euros of public funds for doing very little work as his parliamentary assistant. He denies wrongdoing.

The former prime minister now faces the prospect of being knocked out in the first round on April 23, leaving independent centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen to contest a run-off two weeks later.

Investors have been unsettled by the possibility of a win for Le Pen, who wants to take France out of the euro zone.

Media reports said that the handful of key party members who thrashed out the deal to rally behind Fillon on Monday secured a pledge that he would temper his ultra-conservative strategy and accommodate centrists by working closely with a more moderate member of his party, Francois Baroin, a former finance minister.

Retailleau declined to say whether the stick-with-Fillon deal had conditions.