PARIS: French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron has vowed to stamp out nepotism as staff abandon his rival Francois Fillon over an investigation into payments to his wife.
Unveiling his manifesto, the former banker said he would ban politicians from employing relatives.
Fillon has lost key staff, and some senators have demanded a new candidate.
Polls suggest Macron will face Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front in the second round of voting.
Fillon, of the Republicans party, had previously led the opinion polls but his popularity has been hit by allegations – now being investigated by a judge – that he paid his Welsh-born wife Penelope hundreds of thousands of euros for work she did not carry out.
On Wednesday Fillon refused to end his campaign and complained he was the victim of a “political assassination”.
Unveiling his manifesto, Macron also said he would reduce the number of parliamentary seats and introduce term limits on elected members to “eradicate conflicts of interest”.
Macron, who is fighting his first election campaign, does not have a political party and describes his “En Marche” organisation as a movement.
He said he wanted France to rediscover its “spirit of conquest” and set out policies to tackle unemployment, abolish residence tax for most French households and make retirement conditions the same for everyone.
There were also plans to tackle social exclusion in poor immigrant suburbs. Macron said he would reduce school class sizes, set up grants to help young people find jobs, incentivise companies to hire them and improve relations between young people and the police.
Macron called for an international “roadmap” to fight Islamic extremism in the Middle East and Africa and said he would increase military spending to 2% of GDP, as the US and other NATO allies have demanded.
He described Africa as the global region that presented the “greatest risk and opportunity” to France.
He also said the remaining 27 EU member states had to defend the single market in Brexit talks. He urged efforts to reinvigorate the eurozone and called for closer European co-operation.
Le Pen has said she wants to pull France out of the euro, but not the EU.
The first round of the French presidential election will be held on 23 April. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote a second round between the two top candidates will be held on 7 May.
