A French Presidential candidate has publicly apologised after his party tweeted a caricature of a rival, admitting that the image had antisemitic overtones.
Francois Fillon, Presidential candidate for Les Républicains, issued a statement in which he referred to the “unacceptable caricature”, which was issued from the right-wing party’s official Twitter account on Friday.
The picture showed Emmanuel Macron with a top hat and hooked nose, and cutting a cigar with a red sickle, a Communist symbol. Mr Macron, an independent centrist candidate, is currently ahead of Mr Fillon in the polls. He is not Jewish, but previously worked as an investment banker for the Rothschild Banking Group.
The tweet was deleted a few hours after it was uploaded, but not before it received online criticism.
