The scandal is real, but the timing is suspect. The facts are many years old, and the moment of their revelation is well calculated to ensure his defeat. Moreover, the very day after the Canard's revelations, prosecutors hastily opened an inquiry. In comparison with all the undisclosed dirty work and unsolved blood crimes committed by those in control of the French State over the years, especially during its foreign wars, enriching one's own family may seem relatively minor. But that is not the way the public sees it.

It is widely assumed that despite National Front candidate Marine LePen's constant lead in the polls, whoever comes in second will win the runoff because the established political class and the media will rally around the cry to "save the Republic!" Fear of the National Front as "a threat to the Republic" has become a sort of protection racket for the established parties, since it stigmatizes as unacceptable a large swath of opposition to themselves. In the past, both main parties have sneakily connived to strengthen the National Front in order to take votes away from their adversary.

Thus, bringing down Fillon increases the chances that the candidate of the now thoroughly discredited Socialist Party may find himself in the magic second position after all, as the knight to slay the LePen dragon. But who exactly is the Socialist candidate? That is not so clear. There is the official Socialist Party candidate, Benoît Hamon. But the independent spin-off from the Hollande administration, Emmanuel Macron, "neither right nor left", is gathering support from the right of the Socialist Party as well as from most of the neo-liberal globalist elite.

• French election intensifies: Rise of Le Pen, fade away of Macron

• Technical glitch or fraud? French socialist primary results baffle media

• 'Political assassination': French presidential candidate Fillon summonsed to face charges over payments made to his wife