BELEAGUERED French presidential candidate Francois Fillon was put on the defensive again over the weekend following two fresh controversies.

    Fillon’s party apologized Saturday for tweeting a caricature of rival Emmanuel Macron that Fillon admitted was anti-Semitic.

    And on Sunday it emerged that he had accepted two suits from a friend worth 13,000 euros (US$13,900).

    France sets a limit of 4,600 euros that any individual can donate to a candidate.

    “A friend gave me suits as a present in February. So what?” Fillon said in an interview with French news daily Les Echos on Sunday.

    The caricature of Macron, Fillon’s main rival, showed the candidate with a hooked nose, wearing a top hat and carrying a red sickle with which he was cutting a cigar.

    Macron is not Jewish but the image appeared to take aim as his past in banking. Critics said it was reminiscent of anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda.

    Fillon acknowledged the similarity, saying that the cartoon “evoked the images of a dark period of our history and exploited an ideology that I have always fought against.”

    And he added on Twitter: “Politics is tough but it must remain dignified. I will not tolerate my party using caricatures that use the themes of anti-Semitic propaganda.”

    Fillon was at one point the favorite to win the presidency but his campaign has been hit by a series of scandals, including an investigation into allegations that he paid his wife 831,400 euros of public funds for work she didn’t do.

    He denies any wrongdoing.

    (SD-Agencies)