France torn over three-man fight to take on Le Pen

Sarkozy, Juppé and Fillon in centre-Right battle too close to call for nomination as presidential candidate

AS THE self-styled matador of French politics, it was only fitting that Nicolas Sarkozy picked the country’s bullfighting capital of Nîmes – once a Roman gladiator hub – to end his campaign to lead the country’s centre-Right wing in next year’s presidential elections.

Today and next Sunday, his Les Républicains party hold their first primary election open to any supporter who pays €2 and signs a charter of centre-Right values.

With the Left in tatters after five years under president François Hollande, the race for the centre-Right nomination has sparked huge interest. This is because the winner is tipped to become president next May after a runoff against Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-Right Front National.

The primary has boiled down to a tense three-way contest between Mr Sarkozy, and ex-prime ministers Alain Juppé and François Fillon. A key consideration for voters is which candidate is best-placed to beat Ms Le Pen.

For Mr Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012 before losing to Mr Hollande, this is one of the toughest battles of his political life.

He is hated with a passion by swathes of French, but commands a fiercely loyal fan base. Receiving a hero’s welcome at his final rally on Friday, one could be forgiven for thinking the 61year-old had just slain a bull with his bare hands.

“France is under threat in its identity and its cohesion,” he growled, singling out “political Islam” as a problem that is “not behind, but in front of us” in a country still licking its wounds from Islamist terror attacks. Promising to restore “authority”, Mr Sarkozy makes no bones about being ready to do battle to

‘In France, we live like Frenchmen with French values, French laws, French customs. Otherwise, you’re not obliged to come to this country’

protect the “French way of life” in an increasingly dangerous world. “In France we live like Frenchmen with French values, French laws, French customs. Otherwise, you’re not obliged to come to this country,” he said, amid chants of “Nicolas president” and a sea of tricolor flags.

Mr Juppé is convinced the opposite is true. In a rally before 6,000 in Paris, the crowd was asked: “Will our country in turn submit to the sirens of populism? Non!”

The 71-year-old mayor of Bordeaux offers a similar economic programme – cutting state spending, ending the 35hour working week and raising the retirement age – but his inclusive message is a world away.

“France is diverse,” he said. “I’m sticking to my guns: to have different origins, skin colours, religions is a strength and it must be respected.”

Mr Juppé has undergone an extraordinary transformation from his country’s most loathed politician of the mid1990s, when his attempt to enact social security reforms sparked crippling strikes, to best-loved elder statesman.

But after months in front, his lead has melted away with the latest polls suggesting the race could go to the wire.

One late Ipsos poll released even placed Mr Fillon in front on 30 per cent, with Mr Juppé and Mr Sarkozy tied on 29 per cent.

If the primary ends in a Juppé-Sarkozy run-off, Mr Juppé can expect centrists and Left-wingers to turn out and vote for him in the final round in order to prevent Sarkozy, their nemesis, from winning.

But both Mr Juppé and Mr Sarkozy are under threat from Mr Fillon, a social conservative who served as Mr Sarkozy’s prime minister for his entire five-year term.

Boasting the most radical programme, the 62-year old amateur racing driver has promised to rush through “shock therapy” austerity reforms for France if elected, slashing state spending and shedding half a million state sector jobs to fund €40billion in tax breaks for companies.

Jérôme Fourquet, of the Ifop polling institute, told The Sunday Telegraph: “A part of the electorate that doesn’t appreciate Sarkozy and was going to vote half-heartedly for Juppé is now thinking – hang on a minute, perhaps Fillon is the man.”

In a final bid to persuade them to do so, Mr Fillon said: “The French are proud and don’t like to be told what to do. Don’t be afraid to contradict opinion polls and the media that had decided it all for you. Vote for what you believe in.”