Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption People have been queuing up to vote in one prosperous area of Paris

French voters have taken part in a US-style primary to choose the candidate of the centre-right Republican party in next year's presidential election.

With most votes counted in Sunday's first round, ex-Prime Minister Francois Fillon appeared to be in the lead.

Alain Juppe, another ex-prime minister, also seemed likely to make the run off.

The partial results suggest former President Nicolas Sarkozy could come third, which would rule him out of the second round next Sunday.

The winner of the conservative primary is likely to make the presidential run-off, where he or she will probably face far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Polls suggest that the Republican candidate would win that election. With the governing socialists unpopular and divided, it seems unlikely that any left-wing candidate will survive the first round.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The seven Republicans vying for the nomination

Organisers said turnout was high. More than three million people were expected to cast ballots.

Voting is not restricted to party members. Those taking part have to sign a statement saying that they "share the Republican values of the right and the centre".

The candidates are: </s> Francois Fillon gestures toward his supporters after declaring victory in the presidential Republican party's runoff primary at Maison de la Chimie in Paris on November 27, 2016. Photo by Yoan Valat/European Press Agency

Far-right candidate for the 2017 French presidential election Marine Le Pen speaks during a campaign rally in Paris on April 17, 2017. Front-runners Le Pen and Centrist Emmanuel Macron held rival rallies ahead of Sunday’s first round presidential vote. Photo by Maya Vidon-White/UPI | License Photo

Supporters cheer centrist candidate for the 2017 French presidential election Emmanuel Macron during a campaign rally in Paris on April 17, 2017. Overseas voters began to cast their ballots in various French territories on Saturday ahead of the mainland votes on Sunday. Photo by Maya Vidon-White/UPI | License Photo

April 22 (UPI) -- French citizens living overseas began casting their ballots in the first round of the presidential elections a day ahead of the vote in France.

Voters in Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the French archipelago south of the Canadian island of Newfoundland, Guiana in South America and French Polynesia began voting on Saturday.

French islands Reunion and Mayotte were scheduled to begin voting on Sunday two hours and one hour earlier than the mainland respectively.

The overseas votes are set to be collected and sent to France early to prevent overseas voters from being influenced by the results of the mainland due to time differences.

A blackout on opinion polls was also issued in France at midnight on Friday.

Two out of the eleven eligible candidates will be selected to participate in a runoff vote on May 5.

Emmanuel Macron of the centralist En Marche! party, Marine Le Pen of the far-right Nationalist party and Francois Fillon of the center-right Republican party are among the more popular candidates for the presidency.

France promised tight security at the ballots, including tens of thousands of police and other security personnel on duty, as tensions rose and the threat of terrorism became a focal point prior to the election.

A knife-wielding man was arrested after causing a panic in Gare du Nord train station in Paris on Saturday, two days after a man shot a police officer dead and injured two others in Paris.

On April 19, French police also arrested two men on suspicion of planning a violent attack during the election after it was found they had an apartment hideout containing firearms and explosives. </s> PARIS (Reuters) - French voters defied expectations on Sunday by throwing ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy out of the race to be the conservatives’ nominee for the presidential election and propelling his ex-prime minister Francois Fillon to top spot.

French politician Francois Fillon (R), member of the conservative Les Republicains political party, arrives after partial results in the first round of the French center-right presidential primary election at his headquarters in Paris, France, November 20, 2016. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

A social conservative with economically liberal ideas, Fillon will face Alain Juppe, another ex-prime minister, in a runoff on Nov. 27 which is likely to produce France’s next president in May.

Long trailing his rivals in opinion polls, Fillon goes into the conservative primaries’ run-off with a strong lead, the backing of defeated candidates including Sarkozy and a fresh poll that already tips him to win that second round.

“I’m telling all the French, no matter who they voted for, that change is on its way to lift France up,” Fillon, an admirer of late British prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, told supporters.

“My fellow Frenchmen have told me, everywhere, they want to break away from a bureaucratic system which saps their energy; everywhere they told me their desire for authority,” said 62-year-old Fillon, who is a rare economic liberal in largely statist France.

Juppe, a moderate 71-year-old conservative campaigning on an inclusive, “happy identity” platform, had for months been ahead in polls for both the primaries and the presidential election.

But he struggled to fire up voters as the election neared and seems to have suffered from constant attacks by Sarkozy calling him soft and branding him as being “hostage” to centrist allies.

Once Fillon, long considered a political has-been, saw his ratings improve just over a week ago after good performances in televised debates, Juppe lost some of the “anti-Sarkozy” tactical vote to him.

Sounding downcast late on Sunday, Juppe told supporters he would “carry on fighting” and billed himself as the best option to defeat far-right party leader Marine Le Pen, whom polls predict will make it to the second round of the presidential elections.

With the Left very divided and a majority of voters telling pollsters they are opposed to seeing the far-right National Front in power, the chosen center-right nominee is likely to defeat Le Pen in an expected election run-off next May.

But while polls have consistently shown Juppe would easily beat Le Pen, there are far fewer surveys on how Fillon would fare in such a match, in further evidence of how unexpected his top spot on Sunday was.

Polls have shown that Fillon, who had received backing by opponents of France’s gay marriage laws, is much less popular than Juppe amid left-wing voters, which could make it harder for him to get their vote versus Le Pen.

A BVA poll in September did however show him beating Le Pen with 61 percent of votes compared with 39 percent for Le Pen were they to fight off in the presidentials’ runoff, while Juppe would score 66 percent vs the far-right leader.

SARKOZY COMEBACK FAILS

Sarkozy, who was president in 2007-2012, was long considered a safe bet for the second round after campaigning on a hardline law-and-order platform that sought to tap into concerns over migration and security.

But that strategy, though popular among grassroots voters of Les Republicains party, alienated the centrist and leftwing voters who took part in the primaries and massively backed Juppe, a Harris Interactive poll showed.

Sarkozy conceded defeat and said he would now back Fillon in the runoff.

“It’s time for me to try a life with more private passions than public ones,” he said.

Slideshow (22 Images)

According to results based on 9,437 polling stations out of a total 10,229, Fillon was seen garnering 44.2 percent of the votes, Juppe 28.5 percent and Sarkozy 20.6 percent, with close to 4 million votes counted.

Fillon is seen winning next Sunday’s primaries’ runoff with 56 percent of the votes vs 44 percent for Juppe, according to the OpinionWay poll carried out amid 3,095 voters who took part in the first round of the primaries this Sunday.

The ruling Socialists and their allies are holding their own primaries in January. Socialist President Francois Hollande, who is deeply unpopular, has yet to announce whether he himself will stand again. </s> MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The first round of the French Socialist Party primaries to determine the presidential nominee finished on earlier Sunday.

"According to the results obtained from 3,090 polling stations, Benoit Hamon receives 35.21% of votes, Manuel Valls gets 31.56%, Arnaud Montebourg gains support of 18.70% voters," the High Authority said.

The polling stations closed at 19:00 local time (18:00 GMT). The turnout at the primaries was rather low, with some 1.7-1.9 million people casting their ballots.

The two top candidates will participate in the second round of primaries set for January 29.

The PS candidate will have to face French far-right National Front leader Le Pen, center-right The Republicans’ nominee Francois Fillon and independent candidate from the left Emmanuel Macron as his or her most important competitors.

The first round of the French presidential elections will take place on April 23.

Never miss a story again — sign up to our Telegram channel and we'll keep you up to speed! </s> Former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has beaten Alain Juppé to win The Republicans primary nomination for the presidency.

Fillon, a conservative Catholic strongly opposed to same-sex marriage, positioned himself firmly to Alain Juppé's right.

Both Fillon, 62 and Juppé, 71, knocked their former boss, former President Nicolas Sarkozy, out of primary's first round. Mr Sarkozy then threw his support behind Fillon, who served as his Prime Minister from 2007 to 2012.

Juppé served as French foreign minister and defence minister under Mr Sarkozy and Prime Minister from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac.

The two opponents disagreed on the best approach towards Russia with Fillon calling for greater ties with the Kremlin and working alongside President Putin in the fight with Isis.

Fillon insists "Russia poses no threat" to the West, while Juppe wants France to continue putting pressure on Putin on various fronts.

Both candidates promised similar free-market reforms while Juppé accused Fillon of plying a populist anti-Muslim, anti-immigration message.

They both pledged to cut public spending, reduce the number of civil servants, raise the retirement age from 62 to 65, end the 35-hour work week and cut business taxes.

Juppé tried to encourage conservatives to support a more tolerant approach toward France's ethnic, religious and social diversity.

Current polls suggest Fillon will stand a good chance of winning the Presidency in the April-May election - but will face a tough challenge in the form of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, the leader of the Front National (FN).

In the first round of primary voting on Nov. 20, Fillon won 44.1 percent of the votes, Juppe 28.6 percent and Sarkozy 20.7. A second round was needed because no candidate secured a majority.

All French citizens over 18 — whether they are members of the Republicans party or not — were eligible to vote in the primary, if they paid 2 euros in fees and signed a pledge stating they "share the republican values of the right and the center." </s> PARIS: Francois Fillon, a conservative reformist promising to shrink the French state, on Sunday clinched the rightwing nomination for next year’s presidential election with a resounding victory over his rival Alain Juppe.

Ex-prime minister Fillon, 62, will now become a favourite to be France’s next leader after winning the US-style primary to pick the nominee of the Republicans party and its allies.

Near-complete results showed him winning 66.5 percent of the vote, with ballots counted from 9,915 polling stations out of 10,229.

In a victory speech, the amateur rally driver said he had “torn up all the pre-written scripts” as he sped past his rivals in the last weeks of the campaign.

“France can no longer bear its decline. France wants the truth and France wants action,” he told cheering supporters after Juppe, a centrist, conceded defeat.

The French presidential vote is seen as a key test for mainstream political parties after the success of Donald Trump and the Brexit campaign in Britain, both of which harnessed anti-elite anger.

Fillon will face fierce competition in the two-round election in April and May from far-right leader Marine Le Pen, the anti-establishment candidate hoping to emulate Trump’s shock victory in the US.

Fillon said a win for the anti-EU Le Pen would spell “bankruptcy”.

Two surveys late Sunday put Fillon ahead of Le Pen in the first round of the election, with the left-wing candidates trailing further behind.

Promising to be the candidate of “all those who in their hearts are proud to be French,” he pledged to turn the page on a “pathetic” Socialist presidency.

Turnout in the primary stood at around four million, roughly the same as in the first round of voting a week ago when Fillon came from behind to lead a field of seven candidates.

The prime minister from 2007-12 has warned that France is “on the verge of revolt” and believes his plan to slash 500,000 public sector jobs and increase working hours is the tonic needed to kickstart the economy.

The devout Catholic has also taken a hard line on immigration and Islam in France, telling newcomers to the country last week that “when you enter someone else’s house you do not take over.”

Voting in northwest Paris, Christophe Mordelet, a 45-year-old human resources manager, said he chose Fillon because he showed “more authority” than Juppe, who campaigned as a moderate unifier.

“You have to bang your fist on the table to get reforms through in this country. We have to stop giving into the power of the street,” he said.

Juppe made a failed pitch for the centre-ground, saying his opponent’s agenda was too “brutal” and he was better placed to keep the far-right out of power.

Conceding defeat and ending his career-long dream of becoming president, the 71-year-old wished Fillon “good luck” in his bid to take back the Elysee Palace from the ruling Socialists.

During the campaign, Juppe had hit out at his opponent as a “yes man” for Russian President Vladimir Putin and also questioned his views on abortion.

Fillon wants closer ties with the Kremlin and has called for the European Union to lift its sanctions on Moscow imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

The Republicans candidate is widely tipped by pollsters to face Le Pen — and beat her — in a second round run-off in May next year.

But the race is seen as highly unpredictable after a year of political upsets and uncertainty about the impact of independents and the Socialist party candidate.

Socialist President Francois Hollande has yet to announce whether he will try to defy his historically low approval ratings by running for a second term.

Valls has not ruled out challenging his boss in a left-wing primary set for January, telling the weekly Journal du Dimanche he wanted to dispel the idea “that the left has no chance” of retaining power.

Hollande’s former protege and economy minister, 38-year-old Emmanuel Macron, is also set to stand for the presidency as a centrist independent.

On Sunday, he accused Fillon of having a retrograde vision of French society and appealed to “progressives of the left, right and centre” to join his camp.

Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon is also likely to draw votes away from mainstream parties in a trend seen in elections across Europe following years of austerity and anger over globalisation and job losses.

Jean-Yves Camus, an associate researcher at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations, said Fillon might have to soften his programme and tack towards the centreground.

“He might have to shift a bit to be more of a unifier and be less divisive,” Camus told Agence France-Presse. AFP </s> France’s centre-right heavyweights were forced to realign their loyalties on Monday, after “third man” François Fillon claimed a surprise victory in the first round of his party’s presidential primaries.

The gloves are now off between Fillon, 62, who scored 44% of Sunday’s vote, and Alain Juppé, 71, who scored 28%, for the second-round vote next weekend.

Whichever of the two former prime ministers wins will become the candidate of the centre-right opposition party Les Républicains, and is expected to be the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen’s only credible opponent in the presidential election next spring.

In the wake of Fillon’s triumph, former ministers and losing candidates – including former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who once described his one-time prime minister as “Mister Nobody” – declared they would support him in the second round.

Sarkozy crashed out of the primaries with only 20.6% of the vote. Shortly after his defeat he called on supporters to throw their weight behind Fillon.

Among those who responded to the call were former prime minister and presidential candidate Édouard Balladur, and Sarkozy supporters Brice Hortefeux and Rachida Dati, as well as fellow first-round loser Bruno Le Maire.

On the other hand, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morziet, who came fourth in the primary has announced she will support Juppé, as have former prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and former minister Valérie Pécresse.



The other first-round contenders, Jean-François Copé, former head of the centre-right party, and Jean-Frédéric Poisson of the Christian Democrat party, have yet to declare their second-round allegiance. François Bayrou, the president of the centrist party MoDem, has already called for his supporters to vote for Juppé.

For French pollsters and politicians alike, Fillon’s massive victory came almost out of nowhere. Just a week ago, polls had him rising in popularity but still relegated to third place, behind Juppé and Sarkozy.

But a strong performance in primary debates appears to have meant his programme, described as an “economic and social transformation” to the right of that proposed by the more centrist Juppé, cut through eventually.

Fillon’s key measures include increasing the 35-hour maximum working week to a 39-hour week for public sector workers, gradually raising the retirement age to 65, reducing unemployment benefits, increasing VAT by two points and reducing direct taxes, as well as cutting 500,000 public sector jobs and making €100bn spending cuts to reduce the public debt and balance the country’s books.



Juppé, who served as prime minister under President Jacques Chirac, has also pledged to do away with the 35-hour week in both public and private sectors, to increase the number of police and gendarmes to counter the terrorist threat, to create full employment by 2022, to make cuts in unemployment benefits and to reduce taxes, particularly for businesses, as well as cutting public spending.

Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, of the ruling Socialist party, which will hold its own primaries in the new year – most likely without the desperately unpopular François Hollande – said: “The right has chosen a candidate who is well to the right, he’s the ultra candidate: ultra-conservative, ultra-liberal, ultra-anti-gay marriage, ultra-antisocial, he ticks all the boxes. It’s the ultra-right and it’s also a straight bridge with the Front National in terms of identity and the idea of the family.”

Although Sarkozy’s final speech on Sunday advised followers to vote for Fillon, an avowed Thatcherite, there is little love lost between the two veterans of French politics. 



In 2007, the newly elected president, Sarkozy, appointed Fillon to the PM’s post as a gesture of gratitude for a successful campaign, which the veteran politician had run. Those close to Sarkozy expected him to fire Fillon shortly afterwards.



The dismissal never came. Not because Sarkozy had changed his mind, but because Fillon’s popularity rose with the voting public, enabling him to doggedly cling to his post. The president then spent his five years in office humiliating his colleague, referring to him publicly as an underling there to carry out presidential orders and nicknaming him “Mister Nobody”.



On Sunday, Fillon served his revenge cold. “Fillon has signed Sarkozy’s political death warrant: this historical boomerang, a double surprise of the right and centre’s primary, will go down in history …” wrote Cécile Cornudet in Les Echos.

“On paper, François Fillon had no chance of finishing ahead in the first round Sunday … but the voters’ wishing to play with the predictions went in his favour,” she added. “History has shown us that nobody is ever dead in politics, and has added a nuance in this curious period where surprise has become the rule and when one can rise in the polls and reverse the table in less than three weeks.”



The French press agreed it was the ultimate humiliation for the former president who was declared the victim of a wave of “anti-Sarkozism”. Libération described it as “the Fillon miracle”.

“Behind the right’s primary was hidden a referendum over the return to business for Nicolas Sarkozy, but also a stupefying majority in favour of François Fillon,” it wrote.

Le Monde’s editorial said the second round would be a battle between the “Thatcher right and the Chirac right”. Fillon, it wrote, represented the “traditional right, solid, serious, provincial and Catholic, notable and well brought-up”. On the other side, it described Juppé as a successor to the former president Jacques Chirac, under whom he served as prime minister – unlikely to cause a social revolution after provoking three weeks of mass demonstrations over his proposed social security reforms in 1995. “He is the upholder of a more moderate, more careful and, he says, more realistic right,” it said. </s> PARIS -- Francois Fillon won France's first-ever conservative presidential primary Sunday after promising drastic free-market changes and a crackdown on immigration and Islamic extremism, beating a more moderate rival who had warned of encroaching populism.

"President! President!" chanted the former prime minister's supporters as he declared victory over Alain Juppe in a nationwide runoff election.

Polls suggest the 62-year-old Fillon, prime minister from 2007-12 under former President Nicolas Sarkozy, would have a good chance of winning the French presidency in the April-May election.

Fillon campaigned on promises of slashing public spending, capping immigration, support for traditional family values and friendlier ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Fillon enjoyed a surprise surge in popularity in recent weeks over longtime front-runner Juppe, who also previously served as the country's prime minister.

In a sober victory speech, Fillon promised to defend "French values" and said France needs "a complete change of software."

"There is in our country an immense need for respect and pride. There is also a call for the authority of the state, and exemplary behavior by those who lead it," he said.

Fillon, whom Juppe had accused of running a divisive campaign that catered to the far right, struck a slightly more inclusive tone Sunday night.

"No one should feel excluded from a society that I want to see more just and with more solidarity," he said.

Juppe, 71, congratulated Fillon on his "wide victory." During the primary campaign, he expressed similar ideas as his rival on the French economy, but tried to rally conservatives around a more tolerant attitude toward France's ethnic, religious and social diversity.

On the basis of results from about 88 percent of polling stations, organizers of the center-right Republicans party primary said Fillon led with 67 percent of the vote compared with 33 percent for Juppe.

Fillon will campaign against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is running an anti-establishment campaign that particularly targets immigrants, France's large Muslim minority group, and the European Union.

Socialist President Francois Hollande is expected to announce in the coming weeks whether he will seek re-election, but the French left has been deeply weakened by Hollande's extreme unpopularity.

Both Fillon and Juppe are high-profile leaders of the Republicans party who knocked Sarkozy, their former boss, out of the primary's first round of voting a week ago. Sarkozy then threw his support behind Fillon.

Sunday's runoff came after a bruising and highly adversarial end phase to the monthslong primary contest, an American-style effort to end party infighting and bolster support for the party's nominee. The conservatives previously chose their candidate internally.

Fillon, a conservative Catholic who opposed France's law legalizing same-sex marriages, said he plans to reduce immigration to France "to a minimum" -- positioning himself firmly to Juppe's right.

Fillon wants to drop sanctions against Russia over its aggressive actions in Ukraine and partner with Russia in the fight against Islamic State extremists. Fillon insists "Russia poses no threat" to the West, while Juppe wants France to continue putting pressure on Putin on various fronts.

They both pledged to cut public spending, reduce the number of civil servants, raise the retirement age from 62 to 65, end the 35-hour work week and cut business taxes.

All French citizens over 18 -- whether they are members of the Republicans party or not -- were eligible to vote in the primary, if they paid 2 euros in fees and signed a pledge stating that they "share the republican values of the right and the center."

Information for this article was contributed by Thomas Adamson of The Associated Press. </s> PARIS: Francois Fillon, a conservative reformist promising to shrink the French state, on Sunday clinched the rightwing nomination for next year’s presidential election with a resounding victory over his rival Alain Juppe.

Ex-prime minister Fillon, 62, will now become a favorite to be France’s next leader after winning the US-style primary to pick the nominee of the Republicans party and its allies.

Near-complete results showed him winning 66.5 percent of the vote, with ballots counted from 9,915 polling stations out of 10,229.

In a victory speech, the amateur rally driver said he had “torn up all the pre-written scripts” as he sped past his rivals in the last weeks of the campaign.

“France can no longer bear its decline. France wants the truth and France wants action,” he told cheering supporters after Juppe, a centrist, conceded defeat.

The French presidential vote is seen as a key test for mainstream political parties after the success of Donald Trump and the Brexit campaign in Britain, both of which harnessed anti-elite anger.

Fillon will face fierce competition in the two-round election in April and May from far-right leader Marine Le Pen, the anti-establishment candidate hoping to emulate Trump’s shock victory in the US.

Fillon said a win for the anti-European Union Le Pen would spell “bankruptcy.”

Two surveys late Sunday put Fillon ahead of Le Pen in the first round of the election, with the left-wing candidates trailing further behind.

Promising to be the candidate of “all those who in their hearts are proud to be French,” he pledged to turn the page on a “pathetic” Socialist presidency.

Turnout in the primary stood at around four million, roughly the same as in the first round of voting a week ago when Fillon came from behind to lead a field of seven candidates.

The prime minister from 2007-12 has warned that France is “on the verge of revolt” and believes his plan to slash 500,000 public sector jobs and increase working hours is the tonic needed to kickstart the economy.

The devout Catholic has also taken a hard line on immigration and Islam in France, telling newcomers to the country last week that “when you enter someone else’s house you do not take over.”

‘Brutal’ candidate?

 Voting in northwest Paris, Christophe Mordelet, a 45-year-old human resources manager, said he chose Fillon because he showed “more authority” than Juppe, who campaigned as a moderate unifier.

“You have to bang your fist on the table to get reforms through in this country. We have to stop giving into the power of the street,” he said.

Juppe made a failed pitch for the center-ground, saying his opponent’s agenda was too “brutal” and he was better placed to keep the far-right out of power.

Conceding defeat and ending his career-long dream of becoming president, the 71-year-old wished Fillon “good luck” in his bid to take back the Elysee Palace from the ruling Socialists.

During the campaign, Juppe had hit out at his opponent as a “yes man” for Russian President Vladimir Putin and also questioned his views on abortion.

Fillon wants closer ties with the Kremlin and has called for the European Union to lift its sanctions on Moscow imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

Unpredictable race

 The Republicans candidate is widely tipped by pollsters to face Le Pen — and beat her — in a second round run-off in May next year.

But the race is seen as highly unpredictable after a year of political upsets and uncertainty about the impact of independents and the Socialist party candidate.

Socialist President Francois Hollande has yet to announce whether he will try to defy his historically low approval ratings by running for a second term.

Valls has not ruled out challenging his boss in a left-wing primary set for January, telling the weekly Journal du Dimanche he wanted to dispel the idea “that the left has no chance” of retaining power.

Hollande’s former protege and economy minister, 38-year-old Emmanuel Macron, is also set to stand for the presidency as a centrist independent.

On Sunday, he accused Fillon of having a retrograde vision of French society and appealed to “progressives of the left, right and center” to join his camp.

Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon is also likely to draw votes away from mainstream parties in a trend seen in elections across Europe following years of austerity and anger over globalization and job losses.

Jean-Yves Camus, an associate researcher at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations, said Fillon might have to soften his program and tack toward the centerground.

“He might have to shift a bit to be more of a unifier and be less divisive,” Camus told Agence France-Presse.
A second-round runoff takes place in France between François Fillon and Alain Juppé to decide who will be the Republican presidential candidate in next year's presidential election.