Penelope and Francois Fillon during a meeting of the campaign at La Villette on January 29, 2017 at Paris – PDN/SIPA
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For this election year, French prime minister François Fillon warned the media during his vows on 10 January : “you’ll have to do with my reserve and my bushy eyebrows “. A cautionary humourous that, since a week, and the revelations of the Duck chained about a possible employment in fictional Penelope Fillon, shatters. For the presidential candidate, now is the time for crisis communications, while a preliminary investigation by the prosecutor’s office financial is open and that the information regarding the remuneration of his wife and his children succeed.

Three personalities from the world of communication grapple for months with the image and the word of the candidate : Anne Méaux, at the head of the agency Image 7, who worked for Eric Woerth, during the Bettencourt affair, Muriel, Reus, former president of Euro RSCG partner corporate and Publicis events, and Myriam Lévy, former journalist and councillor communication in François Fillon at Matignon. But the trio fails today to contain the controversy, “which is in the process of becoming an industrial accident for the nomination of François Fillon,” said Arnaud Mercier, a professor of information science and communication at the University Panthéon-Assas. The image of the pretender to the Elysee, who has built his candidacy on the rigour and probity, appears to break with the image of a man reserving supposedly privileges to his followers.

Errors and confusion

First error in the management of the communication of the candidate, with a “confessional” ill-prepared : as discussed in Jacky Isabello, co-founder of the agency Coriolink, ” the step of the confessional is to spend the whole life of the candidate for the fine-tooth comb. It is essential because in the countryside there will always be balls stink. But this step was not done because no one expected the attacks on this part of the life of the candidate, ” says the communication.

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After the first charges of Duck chained, the candidate’s response is good according to the head of the Agency Release Johann Fourmond. “François Fillon reacts by going the next day on the set of a 20h, which represents a rite of passage. He takes the hand “. But the victimization and denunciation of the “balls stink” -a classic of crisis communication – are overshadowed by an error of the candidate about these children, ” lawyers “, as they were not yet. “Stress, or unpreparedness of the candidate?…. Provide a rapid response should not turn to the precipitation which can be disastrous, ” said the communicator.

” Pandora “

Another error : François Fillon opens a “Pandora’s box” during this newscast, according to the specialist in political communication Arnaud Mercier. François Fillon says it on the plateau of TF1 that a review in this “Penelopegate” would be a ground for non-candidate for the presidential election. “This statement is incredible on the part of a candidate, the winner of the primary on the right. It opens up a perspective [of a waiver] that even his opponents did not dare to imagine, ” continues the professor at the French press Institute. And the word of the candidate who had to clarify the situation opens up new questions. Sunday in a meeting in Paris,