France's Fillon decries institutional 'coup d'etat' against his presidency bid

PARIS (Reuters) - French presidential candidate Francois Fillon on Wednesday asked his fellow conservative lawmakers to stay loyal to him in the face of a scandal over his wife's work, denouncing the furore that has hurt is campaign as the work of left-wing opponents. "We are facing an institutional coup d'etat from the left," said a member of parliament for The Republicans party who attended a meeting with Fillon. The lawmaker, who wanted to stay anonymous, said Fillon asked his fellows to "hold on for 15 days" - long enough for the official inquiry into the affair to run its course. "Nobody will stop Francois Fillon and the Right from being present in the first round of the presidential election and the second round of the presidential election," Fillon's spokesman Thierry Solere said later. Fillon has lost his spot as favourite to win the presidential election this year since the opening of an official inquiry into a newspaper report that his wife and family earned over 1 million euros, mostly taxpayer-funded, for doing very little work. Party grandees have been considering the need for a Plan B without him. (Reporting by Emile Picy; Writing by Andrew Callus)