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A shock leaked poll obtained by Belgian newspaper La Libre shows Marine Le Pen leading the French Presidential race on 26%, with conservative Francois Fillon in second place on 22%. If that result played out today it would mean that establishment favourite Emmanuel Macron would be knocked out and that Le Pen would take on Fillon one-on-one.

As the tumultuous French presidential campaign enters the home stretch, the surprising dark-horse candidate who could finish first is the one who was leading out of the gate — the former conservative prime minister, François Fillon... Fillon has stubbornly resisted calls to step down after revelations he paid his wife and children government salaries, though they apparently did little or no work in return. He has not denied the payments, but insists he did not misuse public funds... And Fillon has a big ace-in-the-hole he is playing to great advantage in these final days of the campaign — the very...

Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, is manoeuvring to return to power as the backstage boss behind Emmanuel Macron, the independent candidate who is favourite to win the French election next month. Mr Sarkozy, 62, who lost the presidency to the Socialist François Hollande five years ago, has all but written off the chances of François Fillon, the beleaguered presidential candidate of his conservative Republicans party, and has instead set his sights on a party victory in the June parliamentary elections, his colleagues say. The outcome of that election will dictate whether the new president has the means to run...

As attacks mount around the election, one presidential front runner said France is seeing “a climate near civil war”. Journalists accused of bias. Judges said to be taking orders from the president. The country in a state of “near civil war.” This isn’t America’s bitter presidential election campaign last year, but France’s in 2017. The latest comments from conservative François Fillon, who has accused the Socialist government of failing to protect candidates, underline the increasingly ugly tone of France’s campaign. Clashes in the western city of Nantes at the weekend during a demonstration against far-right leader Marine Le Pen and...

The campaign of French presidential hopeful Francois Fillon has suffered a setback with a fresh revelation regarding alleged payments to his wife. In a 2007 interview aired on television news on Thursday evening, Penelope Fillon explains: "I've never been actually (Francois's) assistant or anything like that." It seems to contradict Mr. Fillon's claims that for years prior she did real work as his parliamentary aide. Mr. Fillon denies wrongdoing. He says he is the victim of a left-wing plot to destroy him and the Franch right. But he is facing pressure to pull out of the race for the presidency,...

In Secular France, Catholic Conservatism Makes A Comeback By James McAuley December 8. CHARTRES, France — For many French voters, François Fillon is more than a leading contender for president in next year’s elections: He is viewed as a crusader in the throes of a holy war. When Fillon handily won both rounds of France’s conservative primaries last month, he campaigned mostly on a genteel conservatism of economic restructuring and strengthened national security. But in a country that firmly defines itself as “secular” in its constitution, Fillon’s unexpected victory represented an astonishing prospect: the political reawakening of Catholic France after...

François Fillon, frontrunner to become France’s next president, has sparked unease in Germany with his friendly attitude toward Russia, but signs that he would beat Marine Le Pen are being welcomed. Fillon secured the nomination of the French conservative Republicans on Sunday with a resounding victory over his more moderate challenger Alain Juppe. Opinion polls currently predict that he would handily beat far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen in the knock-out finals of next May’s presidential elections. That in itself is cause for relief in Germany, France’s traditional core EU partner, which has been rattled by the US election...

Francois Fillon, a leading contender in the upcoming French presidential election, suggested Jews do not respect French law. Fillon, a former prime minister who this week won the first round of the presidential primary in France’s center-right Republicans party, made the assertion during an interview Wednesday with Europe1 radio, in which he cited Jews as proof that Muslims may become better integrated. “I think that sectarianism is increasing today within the Muslim community and that the sectarianists are taking that community hostage,” said Fillon. “We need to combat this sectarianism and we need to do it as we have in...

An amateur racing driver and unrepentant Margaret Thatcher fan who has broken ranks with the traditionally statist line of the French right, he has promised a “radical shock” for France – tax cuts, public spending cuts, slashing public sector jobs and breaking trade union power.His popularity is also down to his careful appeal to the deeply socially conservative views of the Catholic right, promising to reverse certain recently won adoption rights for gay couples, preserve traditional family values and respect France’s Christian roots. ...It is, however, Fillon’s social conservatism and “family values” – including his private views on abortion and...

After a stunning result in the first round of the rightwing presidential primary, François Fillon is now favourite to win the runoff and as a result next year's presidential election. Here's what you need to know about the open admirer of Margaret Thatcher. He’s a big fan of Margaret Thatcher Openly saying you are an admirer of the former Conservative British Prime Minister is normally risky business for a Frenchman. She and Ronald Reagan are often seen as the bad parents of the neoliberal economic revolution in the 1980s that France has never really adjusted to. But Fillon, who was...

Sarkozy Defeated In Primary For French Right's Presidential Candidate Former prime ministers François Fillon and Alain Juppé face second vote on 27 November, after Nicolas Sarkozy suffers humiliating rejection Angelique Chrisafis in Paris 20 November 2016 Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s political career has been effectively ended, after he was dealt a humiliating defeat on Sunday by his former prime minister François Fillon in the first round of the race to choose the rightwing Republican party’s candidate for the presidency next spring. Fillon, a socially conservative, free-market reformer who admires Margaret Thatcher and voted against same-sex marriage, came close to...

Ex-French PM accuses Hollande aide of lying over Sarkozy legal case claims PARIS Sun Nov 9, 2014 4:36pm EST (Reuters) - Former French prime minister Francois Fillon accused President Francois Hollande's chief of staff of lying on Sunday after a media report accused Fillon of asking him to accelerate a legal case against his rival Nicolas Sarkozy. Newspaper Le Monde said that Fillon had asked Jean-Pierre Jouyet in June to speed up legal cases involving Sarkozy to undermine his political comeback, including one linked to fines over the funding of the former president's 2012 campaign.

A bitter election battle to succeed Nicolas Sarkozy as new leader of France’s main centre-Right party, UMP, has gone down to the wire in a contest that could decide whether or not the group swings farther Right. Jean-Francois Cope, the party’s firebrand secretary-general, was more than 3,000 votes ahead of the moderate Francois Fillon, with some 155,000 ballots counted from the election among the party’s 300,000 members. With the outcome still unclear, the surprise of the night was the higher-than-expected score of Mr Copé, 48, who was expected to finish well behind Mr Fillon, 58. Last night members of the...

PARIS, May 18, 2007 (AFP) - New French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Friday unveiled a 15 minister cabinet team that includes seven women and maverick Socialist Bernard Kouchner as foreign minister. The line-up was unveiled a day after right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy, who took power this week promising radical reform to lift France out of its social and economic malaise, named Fillon as prime minister. Many of the ministers served under Sarkozy's predecessor Jacques Chirac. But there are many startling appointments, including the heavy female presence and the first minister of North African origin, that highlight Sarkozy's declared aim...

PARIS, May 17, 2007 (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy Thursday named Francois Fillon, a loyal advisor and moderate right-winger, as prime minister to steer through his promised social and economic reforms. The 53-year-old senator for the ruling UMP party, who worked closely with Sarkozy on his election campaign, is seen as a safe pair of hands whose experience of pensions reform will be a key asset to the new government. Sarkozy's office announced the appointment after the two men met for a working breakfast at the Elysee palace, one day after the right-winger took over as head of state...