Fillon supporters jubilant as he promises "software change" for France after primary victory

Record ID: 77397

  • Title: Fillon supporters jubilant as he promises "software change" for France after primary victory
  • Date: 27th November 2016
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (NOVEMBER 27, 2016) (REUTERS FOR AGENCY POOL) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** CROWD OF FRENCH CONSERVATIVE PRIMARY WINNER FRANCOIS FILLON'S SUPPORTERS CHEERING AT RESULTS TV SCREEN SHOWING RESULTS CROWD WATCHING SCREEN WINNER OF CONSERVATIVE PRIMARY, FRANCOIS FILLON, WALKING ON STAGE VARIOUS OF FILLON ON STAGE CROWD LISTENING TO FILLON FILLON ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (French) WINNER OF CONSERVATIVE PRIMARY, FRANCOIS FILLON, SAYING: "I know the seriousness of the situation and what our fellow citizens expect. I will for the next few months go to meet them. I will take up a challenge which is unusual in France: tell the truth and completely change its software." CROWD LISTENING TO FILLON FILLON MAKING SPEECH (SOUNDBITE) (French) WINNER OF CONSERVATIVE PRIMARY, FRANCOIS FILLON, SAYING: "My ambition is to pull France up to be the best it can be and I can assure you that if in 2017 we take things firmly into our hands then our country will go far because nothing can stop a nation which is standing up for its future." VARIOUS OF FILLON SUPPORTERS LISTENING FILLON ON STAGE FILLON THANKING CROWD AND LEAVING PODIUM
  • Embargoed: 12th December 2016 22:15
  • Keywords: Francois Fillon Alain Juppe presidential primary Les Republicains conservative right-wing centrist
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • City: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
  • Reuters ID: LVA0015A7YUYV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Francois Fillon, a socially conservative free-marketeer, won France's centre-right presidential primaries on Sunday (November 27), setting up a likely showdown next year with far-right leader Marine Le Pen that the pollsters expect him to win.
    With votes from four-fifths of 10,228 polling stations counted, Fillon, who went into Sunday's second-round run-off as firm favorite, had won over 67 percent of the vote in a head-to-head battle with another ex-prime minister, Alain Juppe.
    "I know the seriousness of the situation and what our fellow citizens expect. I will for the next few months go to meet them. I will take up a challenge which is unusual in France: tell the truth and completely change its software," he told a crowd of supporters in Paris after his win.
    "My ambition is to pull France up to be the best it can be and I can assure you that if in 2017 we take things firmly into our hands then our country will go far because nothing can stop a nation which is standing up for its future," he said.
    Fillon, 62, came from behind in opinion polls over the past two weeks.
    In last week's first round Les Republicains party primary he knocked out former president Nicolas Sarkozy, under whom he served as prime minister from 2007 to 2012, and pushed Juppe into second place.
    A racing car enthusiast who lives in a Loire valley chateau, Fillon promises radical reforms to France's regulation-encumbered economy, vowing to roll back the state and slash government's bloated costs.
    "He has this capacity to reassure even though I think that we will go through some difficult times but it'll be for the greater good of France," said lawyer and Fillon enthusiast Tanguy d'Everlange.
    "France needs to recover, it will need lots of sacrifices from everyone and I think that we are all ready for that because France needs to get back on its feet and I'm very proud and happy that it is him. I hope that he'll go all the way. We really need change, and to get back on track and be very strong in Europe," said Beverly Brunier.
    All eyes now turn to the ruling Socialist party and to whether the deeply unpopular President Francois Hollande will decide to run for the left-wing ticket in his party's primaries in January, amid signs that his prime minister, Manuel Valls, is considering a bid of his own.
    France, the euro zone's second largest economy, has faced stubbornly high unemployment under Hollande, and the past two years of his term have been marked by Islamist militant attacks that have killed 230 people and focused attention on immigration and security concerns too.
    Opinion polls suggest neither he nor any left-wing candidate would make the second round of the presidential election itself next May, leaving Fillon a clear run at the anti-EU, anti-immigration National Front leader Le Pen that the surveys predict him to win.
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