National Post (National Edition)
Reformer scores key win in France
PARIS • François Fillon, a former prime minister who has promised to enact radical “Thatcherite” economic reforms in France, Sunday trounced his more moderate rival, Alain Juppe to win his right-wing party’s presidential nomination.
Partial results placed Fillon, 62 — who was considered an also-ran until a few weeks ago — far ahead of Juppe, also a former prime minister, in a vote to lead the Republican party, with almost 70 per cent of the vote.
“My approach has been understood: France can’t bear its decline. It wants truth and it wants action,” Fillon told supporters at his campaign headquarters as he accepted the nomination. “I will take up an unusual challenge for France: tell the truth and completely change its software,” he said.
Conceding defeat, Juppe said: “I congratulate Francois Fillon for his clear victory. This evening, I offer my support to François Fillon and I wish him victory next May,” he said.
With the French left in the doldrums, Fillon’s victory places him in the pole position to face the Front National’s Marine Le Pen in presidential elections next May. Le Pen is adamant that the same anti-establishment anger that saw Britain vote to leave the EU and Americans to elect Donald Trump could sweep her to power, although polls suggest that is unlikely.
Fillon — a racing car enthusiast who lives with his Anglo-Welsh wife, Penelope, in a château in the Loire valley — is a social conservative who has positioned himself as a defender of traditional family values and France’s Catholic roots as well as an opponent of multiculturalism.
He has taken a hard line on Islam, saying the religion must eradicate radicalism, after terror attacks have left 230 dead in France in the past two years.
He wants to break with France’s statist tradition and to roll out an ambitious freemarket program that will undoubtedly set him on collision course with France’s unions. His pledge to slash half a million state-sector jobs and jettison the 35-hour week were branded unworkable by Juppe.
Fillon backs a “Europe of nations” and has voiced skepticism over the European Commission and EU parliament.
Regarding Britain, he has called for a “good neighbourly deal” over Brexit, but recently made it clear that if the U.K. refused the free movement of EU citizens, then there is no “reason to leave them the European financial passport and the eurozone must take back clearing its currency.”
Attention will now turn to the French left, with a bitter contest expected between François Hollande, the most unpopular president of modern times, and his prime minister, Manuel Valls, in the Socialist primaries in January.
(FRANCE) WANTS TRUTH AND IT WANTS ACTION.