Fillon, 'radical Conservative' Who Could Be French President

PARIS, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Nov, 2016 ) - Francois Fillon, thrust into pole position to become France's next president, has a mild-mannered exterior that masks a radical economic programme and hardline social conservatism.

Fillon, 62, is a Catholic free-market reformer whose proposals have earned comparisons with the ideas of Britain's reforming 1980s prime minister Margaret Thatcher. His surprise runaway victory in the first round of the rightwing presidential Primary reversed the balance of power with his former boss, ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy dismissed Fillon as an "employee" when he served as his prime minister from 2007 to 2012. On Sunday, as he crashed out of the race behind Fillon and the veteran Alain Juppe, Sarkozy pledged his support for the man who in office was an unflappable antidote to the frenetic president.

"Francois Fillon seems to me to have best understood the challenges facing France," Sarkozy said. With the French left riven by division, the winner of next Sunday's second round of the rightwing primary is forecast to reach the runoff of the presidential election in May.

There, if polls are to be believed, he would almost certainly face Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front (FN). Fillon's clear lead over 71-year-old Juppe in the first round suggests he will comfortably clinch the nomination.

"We are several laps ahead," Fillon, a motor-racing enthusiast who was born in Le Mans, home of the world-renowned 24-hour race, told his supporters. Perhaps it was because of his soft-spoken style that his rivals failed to see his late acceleration in the two-month primary campaign -- at the start he was a distant third place in opinion polls.

Fillon's economic proposals clearly struck a chord with rightwing voters -- he wants to scrap the 35-hour week, one of the sacred cows of the French left. That is coupled with a pledge to slash an eye-popping 500,000 jobs from the bloated public sector. On Monday, his rivals were seeking to paint him as a dangerous reformer whose proposals will never fly.