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World Business Report: First broadcast 2017/02/02 22:32 GMT: French Presidential Candidate Pressured to Quit Amid Fraud Investigation

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French Presidential Candidate Pressured to Quit Amid Fraud Investigation

First broadcast 2017/02/02 22:32 GMT

First broadcast 2017/02/02 22:32 GMT: French Presidential Candidate Pressured to Quit Amid Fraud Investigation

BBC World Service - World Business Report, French Presidential Candidate Pressured to Quit Amid Fraud Investigation

Pressure is growing on Francois Fillon to step down as a candidate for French President.

Pressure is growing on Francois Fillon to step down as a candidate for French President. We hear from Paris what people are making of allegations of fraud against Mr Fillon.

The efforts of Francois Fillon to become France's next president have suffered a major setback, after prosecutors widened their investigation into allegations of fraud against the candidate and his wife. Francois Sergeant, a former editor of France's Liberation newspaper, tells us the campaign is in serious trouble:

The chief executive of the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, Ben van Buerden, has told the BBC he supports the choice of Rex Tillerson, as America's new Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, the former chief executive of the energy firm Exxon Mobil, has been spending his first day in the job, but controversy over his appointment by President Donald Trump continues. We get the views of the veteran environmental campaigner Jonathan Porritt, 

Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in Romania, the biggest demonstrations since the end of communism, to protest against a government decree that relaxes legislation to prevent corruption.The Romanian government has rejected calls to withdraw the decree, that critics say marks a major retreat on anti-corruption reforms. We ask Laura Stefan, who has spent many years campaigning against corruption in Romanian politics, if it is inevitable the decree will come into force.

In Spain, a controversial type of mortgage which ensured that homeowners paid a minimum interest rate, even when market rates were much lower, has led to a legal wrangle that has gone all the way to the European Court of Justice. In December, the court ruled that Spanish banks had to pay back billions of euro that customers had paid under the terms of so-called "floor clauses". The BBC's Guy Hedgecoe reports from Madrid on how banks and their customers are reacting to the judgement. 

(Picture: French presidential candidate Francois Fillon. Getty Images.)

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