Former prime minister François Fillon appears poised to become the next leader of France’s Republican party as millions of voters go to the polls Sunday.
Sometimes called the “French Thatcher” for his apparent admiration of Britain’s former leader, Fillon is a social conservative who has talked of ending France’s famed 35-hour work week and getting tough with the country’s powerful trade unions. He has also spoken of cutting public spending, abolishing the wealth tax, reducing immigration and investing billions in security, defense and justice.
He is running against the mayor of Bordeaux, Alain Juppé, who is also a former premier but a more moderate conservative. Juppé also has vowed to scrap the 35-hour work week and push economic reform and stricter border control.
The vote is a runoff in the party’s first-ever US-style primary election. The first round put Fillon well ahead, with 44.1% of the vote. Juppé received 28.6% and former President Nicolas Sarkozy came in third with 20.6%, eliminating him from the final round.
The winner will likely face Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front Party in a presidential vote next spring.
Le Pen’s anti-Europe and anti-immigration stance has been gaining popularity among French voters, and in an interview with CNN last week, she said she’d been emboldened by Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the United States.
It “makes the French realize that what the people want, they can get, if they mobilize themselves,” she said.
Voters are widely expected to boot out the Socialist Party that has ruled France since 2012 under the leadership of President Francois Hollande, whose popularity is waning.
A Catholic from Le Mans
Fillon, 62, is a lawyer who served as prime minister between 2007 and 2012 under Sarkozy. He has been compared to Britain’s “Iron Lady,” the late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, for his hardline social policies.
French newspaper Liberation morphed Fillon’s face with Thatcher’s in a cover image this week — no doubt inspired by the Republican’s tough talk on unions and pledge to cut 500,000 jobs from the civil service.
Just a month ago Fillon was considered an unlikely bet for the presidency, but he won over voters with a polished performance in televised debates.
He apparently also has struck a popular tone in the country’s fight against Islamic terrorism and ISIS after publishing a new book, “Beating Islamic Totalitarianism.”
As a Catholic from Le Mans, a city in northwest France, Fillon symbolizes the traditional provincial right.
The father of five lives with Welsh-born wife Penelope in a 12th-century castle near where he grew up. Fillon also is a race car enthusiast who once appeared on France’s “Top Gear” TV program.
Overcoming scandal
Juppé, 71, also served as prime minister — from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac.
He’s seen as a reliable and experienced politician, and a center-right moderate who has promised to promote a “happy national identity” if he comes to power.
But he’s also been tainted by scandal. While deputy mayor of Paris in charge of finance in the 1980s and 1990s, Juppé was accused of using public funds to pay political allies.
He was found guilty of corruption in 2004 and sentenced to 18 months in prison and barred from holding public office for a decade. His sentence was later reduced to 14 months imprisonment and one year of ineligibility.
Juppé was reelected mayor of Bordeaux in 2006, beginning a political comeback.
The father of three lives in the Bordeaux region with his journalist wife, Isabelle Legrand-Bodin.