Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Both France and the U.S. Have a Nepotism Problem

Presidential candidate Francois Fillon's wife clearly helped him do his job, whether he can prove it or not.

January 27, 2017 at 4:50 PM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Dual roles.
Photographer: Frederic Stevens

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A scandal already known as "Penelope-gate" threatens to ruin Francois Fillon's bid for the French presidency. The center-right candidate, until recently a strong favorite to win, is under preliminary investigation for allegedly paying out a total of 500,000 euros ($534,000) to his wife Penelope for invisible work as his parliamentary aide.

This raises the question of how politicians' family members should be treated in a democracy -- as assistants who can receive compensation for their efforts or, to prevent accusations of nepotism, as accidental bystanders (or humble volunteers). Both models have their problems.