Fillon leads in French rightwing primary

The surprise winner of the first round of France’s right- wing presidential primary, conservative expremier Francois Fillon, was the runaway favorite Monday to win the contest expected to decide France’s next leader.

Fillon, an admirer of Margaret Thatcher who has pledged deep economic reforms, pulled off a stunning upset Sunday, surging from behind to knock his former boss Nicolas Sarkozy out of the race and beat the longtime favorite, Alain Juppe, into distant second.

Fillon and Juppe, also a former prime minister, will go head- to- head in a runoff on Sunday, with the winner expected to meet far- right leader Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential election in May.

As Fillon faced immediate attacks from the left as “an ultra- conservative”, former center- right prime minister Jean- Pierre Raffarin also warned that his program of cuts was “unworkable.”

“There is no chance of implementing reforms through brute force,” Raffarin, an ally of Juppe, told BFM TV on Monday morning.

Polls show Le Pen being beaten at the final hurdle but her rivals have warned that all bets are off in a country where anti- elite sentiment that propelled Donald Trump to the White House is also running high.

Sarkozy’s defeat at the hands of his former premier Fillon, a man he once nicknamed “Mr Nobody,” marked what appeared to be an ignominious end to the ex- president’s 40 years in politics.

His hard- right campaign and failure to enact many of his promises when in power from 20072012 repelled many voters in his camp.