Roundup: Defections, tumbling popularity put defiant Fillon on back foot as election approaches

An Odoxa poll released on Friday showed that three quarters of French respondents believed scandal-hit presidential candidate Francois Fillon was wrong to stick to his presidential bid despite being under legal investigation, with the majority saying he should be replaced.

In a separate survey, the pollster predicted the Republican Party's Alain Juppe would top voting intentions in first round if he replaced the embattled former prime minister.

In a defiant speech on Wednesday, Fillon stressed to fight "to the end" to defend his chances to win the presidential ticket.

He called supporters and senior members of his right-wing party to resist "a political assassination."

Once the favorite to become France's new head of state, he is now the third man according to the country's pollsters.

"He must realize that he is no longer able to carry the voice of those who believe in the right," Gerald Darmanin, deputy secretary general of the Republican Party told the regional newspaper La Voix du Nord.

In a further sign of Fillon's worsening crisis, key figures of his campaign, including Thierry Solere, Fillon's chief spokesman, and political advisor Dominique Busserau joined the list of those who resigned following the news of a judicial summon.

Adding insult to injury, the country's center-right UDI party suspended its support for the presidential campaign of the conservative nominee.

Fillon was placed under formal investigation this week as part of an inquiry into misuse of public funds and the misappropriation of assets.

Fillon has been under fire since French satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine reported on Jan. 25 that he had paid his wife and two of his five children about one million euros (1.06 million U.S. dollars) for their jobs as parliamentary assistants. However, there was no evidence showing that Fillon's wife had really worked.

In a fresh attempt to defend his image as an honest and morally-irreproachable candidate, the ex-premier said he would go before judges and tell them "my truth, which is the truth," he said on Wednesday.

He rejected any wrongdoing and denounced a bias in the judicial system in relation to the investigation into his wife's allegedly fake job.

"From the start, I have not been treated like anyone else facing the justice system," he said

To Alain Duhamel, a political analyst, Fillon "prepares the right for a failure and a division," what Duhamel called "a form of egotism."

"The crisis in the right-wing party will be less bad with a Plan B even if the person who will replace Francois Fillon will start a late campaign with extremely difficult financial, moral, and political conditions," he told RTL radio.

As the investigation into Fillon's wife's fake job deepens, the candidate's camp planned a rally on Sunday in what the ex-premier's backers hope will prove a big enough show of force to regain voters' confidence. Endit