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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.

French voters will finally be able to vote for a new president today. They've suffered for years under the less than inspiring leadership of socialist Francois Hollande, but today they take the first step to replacing him with someone else -- someone better. Or not, of course. After all, although two candidates -- Francois Fillon and Marine Le Pen -- are considered to be "conservative," they are not exactly the favorites to win the election. In Fillon's case, even proceeding to the second round may prove impossible. The first round of France's presidential election only serves to separate the top...

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...

A senior politician from embattled French presidential candidate Francois Fillon's conservative camp said on Sunday that several party heavyweights were about to issue a statement calling for prime minister Alain Juppe to replace him. Once the frontrunner, Fillon is mired in a scandal over his wife's pay, and his campaign has been in serious trouble since he learnt last week that he could be placed under formal investigation for misuse of public funds. He is under growing pressure as party leaders prepare a crisis meeting Monday to discuss the situation ahead of a March 17 deadline when all presidential candidates...

French centre-right presidential candidate Francois Fillon has said he will fight on, as he announced that a judge was placing him under formal investigation. For weeks, he has fought allegations that his wife was paid for year for work she did not do. "It's a political assassination," Mr. Fillon told reporters on Wednesday. He has now been summoned to appear before the judge, Serge Tournaire, on 15 March. The date is just two days before the deadline for candidates to submit their final applications. The first round takes place on 23 April, followed by a second-round run-off on 7 May......

France's centre-right presidential candidate, Francois Fillon, has been hit by further allegations on the day that anti-corruption police raided his office in parliament. Satirical weekly Le Candard Enchaine said last week that his wife Penelope had been paid hundreds of thousands of euros for fake jobs. Now it has reported that the earned far more and for longer. Mr. Fillon hit back, calling the claims a campaign to destroy his candidacy. "Never in the history of the Fifth Republic has such an operation of very professional slander been launched in an attempt to eliminate a candidate," he said. He earlier...

Francois Fillon has said he would drop out of the race for the French presidency if he were criminally investigated. Mr Fillon is at the centre of a media storm over allegations that for years his wife was paid for parliamentary work she did not do. The conservative candidate told French TV there was nothing improper or illegal about his wife's employment.

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...

With virtually all the results counted, Mr Fillon won Sunday's run-off with nearly 67% of the vote. Mr Fillon promised to build a fairer society, saying France wants "truth and it wants action". He is likely to face a Socialist candidate and the far-right's Marine Le Pen in next April's 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...

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.

PARIS (AP) - France has declared war on al-Qaida, and matched its fighting words with a first attack on a base camp of the terror network's North African branch, after the terror network killed a French aid worker it took hostage in April. The declaration and attack marked a shift in strategy for France, usually discrete about its behind-the-scenes battle against terrorism. "We are at war with al-Qaida," Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday, a day after President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the death of 78-year-old hostage Michel Germaneau. The humanitarian worker had been abducted April 20 or 22 in Niger...

There will be no contest for the post of prime minister. The reason why Nicolas Sarkozy refrained from raising the subject at any time in his election campaign, or even to give the slightest sign that could be interpreted in one way or another, is because in his mind the question was already decided. Initially, the candidate had envisaged announcing the name of his prime minister and principal ministers with whom he planned to govern before taking up office at the Elysee. But under pressure from Claude Gueant and his friends, he gave up the idea. "That could have created...