Sarkozy Eliminated in French Republican Primary by Fillon Surge
A last-minute rush of support for former Prime Minister Francois Fillon in the center-right primary saw Nicolas Sarkozy knocked out of the French presidential race at the first hurdle.
With almost 80 percent of polling stations reporting, Fillon has 44% of the vote with long-time front-runner Alain Juppe second on 28%, according to election officials. Sarkozy was third with 21%.
Both Sarkozy and fourth-placed Bruno Le Maire, who had 2.6 percent, said they’d back Fillon in next Sunday’s runoff. At Fillon’s campaign headquarters in Paris, his supporters chanted, “We’ve won, we’ve won.”
Juppe and Fillon are “two characters of great quality who do honor to the right,” Sarkozy said in a televised statement. “Francois Fillon has better understood the challenges facing France, so I will vote for Fillon.”
After trailing a distant third or even fourth for months in opinion polls, Fillon now leads the race to take on Marine Le Pen’s anti-European platform in next year’s election. Polls suggest the Republican candidate is likely to face the National Front leader in the two-way presidential run-off in May, with Socialist incumbent Francois Hollande posting the worst approval ratings in French history.
