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“Radical” Fillon wins France's right-wing presidential primary
Former prime minister gets 66% of the votes, defeats Alain Juppé · Fillon's manifesto vows to limit immigration, some rights of homosexual couples · Leader is known to hold stance against minoritised languages
His wide-margin victory against Bordeaux mayor Alain Juppé —who had earlier been the favourite in opinion polls— is explained in part because of support received from former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who after being eliminated in the primary's first round said he would vote for Fillon.
Fillon —who was French prime minister under president Sarkozy— outlined a "radical" program —according to his own words— including the lengthening of the working week of civil servants and cutting some 500,000 jobs in the public service.
In 1982, as an MP, he voted against a law decriminalizing homosexuality between adults and minors aged 15 to 18 —the law did not apply for heterosexuals— and was hostile to homosexual marriage during the presidency of François Hollande. Now Fillon says he will prevent gay couples from accessing the full adoption of children —in France two types of adoption exist: Fillon vows to allow homosexuals to only access simple adoption, in which the child keeps ties with his or her family of origin. He also argues abortion is not a fundamental right.
Fillon's manifesto vows to limit immigration by establishing a quota system, and says social services will not be accorded to foreigners unless they have legally resided for at least two years in France.
The former PM is also known for his hostility against non-state languages of the French Republic, such as Occitan, Catalan or Breton. In 2012, he welcomed the loss of those languages because, he said, that process had been accompanied by the emergence of a "great French culture."
That one is not his only controversial statement regarding culture. A few months ago Fillon somewhat justified colonization by saying that France had sought "to share its culture with the peoples of Asia, Africa and North America," and recalled that France "had not invented slavery."
"Good luck to France"
For his part, Juppé had portrayed himself more as a reformer, "without [Fillon's] brutality" which, according to the Bordeaux mayor, "could lead to a blockade of French society."
Juppé predicted it is "all but impossible" to cut half a million jobs in the public sector, and proposed instead to reduce them by 250,000. Besides, he did not support restricting adoptions for homosexual couples.
Nevertheless, Juppé congratulated his rival, and announced he will be leaving French-wide politics. "I will fully devote myself to my Bordeaux mayoral post, which has given me and continues to give me joy," he said.
In addition, Juppé regarded himself to be lucky "to have been able to speak to the French people throughout this campaign," and concluded by wishing France "good luck."
Fillon likely to be next president?
France's right-wing primary was an important one since, given the fact that president Hollande enjoys very limited popularity, it is quite likely that citizens of the French Republic will need to choose between Fillon and National Front candidate Marine Le Pen in the presidential run-off.
November polls are suggesting that indeed the run-off would now be facing Fillon and Le Pen. In that scenario, surveys says, the Les Républicains' candidate Republicans would win by a margin of 30 to 40 percentage points.
(This article is an adaptation and expansion of an article by Occitan news site Jornalet, with which Nationalia as a partnership agreement.)