France's Fillon flies through to presidential primary's second round, Sarkozy defeated

Record ID: 78143

  • Title: France's Fillon flies through to presidential primary's second round, Sarkozy defeated
  • Date: 20th November 2016
  • Summary: 2017 FILLON POSTER
  • Embargoed: 5th December 2016 22:34
  • Keywords: Fillon France election presidential Sarkozy primary vote
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • City: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
  • Reuters ID: LVA0025991N47
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Former French prime minister Francois Fillon defeated his ex-boss Nicolas Sarkozy in a race to be the conservatives' nominee for next year's presidential election on Sunday (November 20).
    According to results based on 8,709 polling stations out of a total 10,229, Fillon was seen gathering 44.1 percent of the votes, Juppe 28.2 percent and Sarkozy 21.0 percent, with the gap with Sarkozy widening from the first partial results.
    Until a week ago, Fillon, a social conservative with economically liberal ideas, trailed Juppe and Sarkozy badly in polls and had not been expected to go through to round two of the primaries.
    "A powerful energy has been unleashed all around us. I am supported by those who want to pick France back up and who are proud to tell the truth. There is hope, and that hope has emerged with strength all over France, contradicting all predictions," Fillon told supporters and journalists at his campaign headquarters.
    Sarkozy, president from 2007-12, said he would now back Fillon in a runoff against Alain Juppe, another former prime minister, on November 27 in a contest which opinion polls suggest is likely to produce France's next president in May.
    "Defeat must not humiliate anyone because we will need everyone," Fillon said.
    Fillon, 62, long considered as a political has-been and trailing Juppe and Sarkozy in the polls, was the unexpected front-runner of Sunday's vote. An admirer of late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, he is a rare economic liberal in largely statist France.
    Socialist President Francois Hollande, who is deeply unpopular, has yet to announce whether he himself will stand again.
    With the left very divided and opinion polls showing a majority hostile to the far-right National Front being in power, the chosen centre-right nominee is likely to defeat party leader Marine Le Pen in an expected election run-off next May.
    But while polls have consistently shown Juppe would easily beat Le Pen, there have been no recent surveys on how Fillon would fare in such a match, in further evidence of how unexpected his top spot on Sunday was.
    Polls have shown that Fillon, who had received backing by opponents of France's gay marriage laws, is much less popular than Juppe amid left-wing voters, which could make it harder for him to get their vote versus Le Pen.
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