Fillon favourite for French presidency after primary landslide

Francois Fillon won the presidential nomination for the conservative Les Républicains party on Sunday night by a landslide of 66.9 per cent to 33.1 per cent for Alain Juppé, with results from most polling stations counted.

Mr Fillon, a 62-year-old former prime minister, is now the man most likely to be elected France’s next president. His programme was the most economically liberal and socially conservative of seven conservative candidates.

Barring an unforeseen breakthrough by a candidate from the left – prime minister Manuel Valls, the former economy minister Emmanuel Macron or the former industry minister Arnaud Montebourg are possibilities – Mr Fillon is likely to face the leader of the extreme right-wing Front National, Marine Le Pen, in the second round of the presidential election on May 7th.

"This is a deeply rooted victory, built on convictions," Mr Fillon said. "France cannot stand being in decline. France wants truth and France wants acts. The five-year term that is ending was pathetic. We must put an end to it and go forward as we never have in the past 30 years."

The campaign had turned ugly in the past week. At their last rallies, Mr Juppé spoke of the “filthy campaign” piloted by the extreme right that portrayed him as “grand mufti of Bordeaux” (where he is mayor), while Mr Fillon said he was described as a “destructive ultra-liberal” and “reactionary”.

But on Sunday night, Mr Fillon was conciliatory. “What unites us is so much more important than what distinguishes us from each other,” he said. “That is why I am holding a hand out to all those who want to serve our country . . . No one must feel excluded from a society that I want to make more just.”

Mr Fillon spoke of an “immense need for respect and pride” on the part of the French, and a longing for “the authority of the state and the exemplarity of those in power”. He promised to conquer “immobility and demagogy. The left means failure. The extreme right means bankruptcy.”

Socialists

All eyes turn now to the socialists. President Francois Hollande and prime minister Mr Valls are engaged in a behind-the-scenes struggle for their party's nomination.

Mr Hollande was reportedly infurated by Mr Valls's interview with the Journal du Dimanche in which he implied he would stand in the socialist primary, even if Mr Hollande is a candidate. "I am preparing," Mr Valls said.

Mr Valls has used the publication of A President Shouldn't Say That ..., a book filled with presidential indiscretions, as a pretext for breaking his vow of loyalty to Mr Hollande.

“The context has changed in recent weeks,” Mr Valls said. “The publication of a book created profound disarray on the left . . . Faced with this disarray, these doubts and disappointment, with the idea that the left has no chance, I want to break the mechanism that would lead us to defeat.”

Reports said Mr Hollande was on the verge of replacing Mr Valls with the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve. Mr Hollande has promised to say whether he is a candidate before December 15th.