Fillon wins French conservative presidential primary: partial results

[kebob]

Source: Reuters

Sun Nov 27, 2016 | 2:49pm EST
By Ingrid Melander and Michel Rose | PARIS

Francois Fillon, a socially conservative free-marketeer, is to be the presidential candidate of the French center-right and likely main challenger to far-right leader Marine Le Pen in next year's election, first partial results of a primaries' second-round vote showed on Sunday.

With votes from over a third of 10,228 polling stations counted, Fillon, who went into Sunday's second-round run-off as favorite, had won 68.6 percent of the vote in the head-to-head run-off compared with 31.4 percent for his rival, another ex-prime minister, Alain Juppe.

All eyes now turn to the ruling Socialist party and to whether the deeply unpopular President Francois Hollande will decide to run for the left-wing ticket in his party's primaries in January, amid signs that his prime minister, Manuel Valls, is considering a bid of his own.

Opinion polls suggest that no left-wing candidate would make the run-off second round of the presidential election itself next May, leaving Fillon a clear run at the anti-EU, anti-immigration Le Pen that the surveys expect him to win.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-idUSKBN13M001?il=0

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Don't worry, everything's gonna be alt right.

[Recursion]

1. Le Pen is going to win (nt)

[LeftishBrit]

5. Bloody hope not. Do you have a connection with France; or are you just seeing a parallel with the

American Nightmare, not to mention our own Almighty Mess?

[Grey Lemercier]

6. Leading French philosopher: Marine Le Pen may win election as people have lost interest in whether

politicians tell the truth (yes, I know, it's the Torygraph)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/20/leading-french-philosopher-marine-le-pen-may-win-election-as-peo/

France may follow America's lead by electing National Front leader Marine Le Pen as its next president because they have lost interest in whether politicians tell the truth, the country's leading philosopher has said.

Recent polls suggest Mrs Le Pen will win next spring’s first round of presidential elections, though she is then likely to be beaten by mainstream centre-right candidate Alain Juppé.

But Bernard-Henri Levy, who was once hailed in France as its greatest living public intellectual, said the upcoming election could be yet another case of the polls getting it wrong.

"If Trump is possible, then everything is possible," Mr Levy told the Telegraph. "Nothing, from now on, is unimaginable.

snip


the polls already got Alain Juppé wrong

François Fillon wins French primary to be candidate for the right

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/27/francois-fillon-on-course-to-win-french-primary-to-be-candidate-for-the-right

SNIP



Marine Le Pen could win presidential election in 2017, French PM admits

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/marine-le-pen-far-right-french-national-front-2017-presidential-election-france-prime-minister-a7422521.html


France’s Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said far-right leader Marine Le Pen has a chance at winning next year’s presidential election, boosted by the momentum of Donald Trump’s shock win in the United States.

While attending a Berlin economic conference, Mr Valls said “it’s possible” that the populist candidate of France’s anti-immigration Front National (FN) could win.

Ms Le Pen is widely tipped to reach the second round of the election on 7 May, when she would then face a run-off for the presidency.

Mr Valls said: “If she does make it to the second round she will face either a candidate of the left or the right. This means that the balance of politics will change completely,”

The 48-year-old far-right politician is currently polling at about 25 to 28 per cent and has stated Donald Trump’s victory was proof that nothing was “set in stone”.


snip



all that said, I think Fillon will beat Le Pen, as he shares some of her key issues, but is less reactionary

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/27/francois-fillon-set-face-marine-le-pen-winning-french-presidential/

Fillon is a social conservative who has positioned himself as a defender of traditional family values and France's Catholic roots and an opponent of "multiculturalism".

He has also taken a hard line on Islam, saying the religion must change in the wake of terror attacks that have left 230 dead in the past two years.

"The Islamic religion (must) accept what all the others have accepted in the past... that radicalism and provocation have no place here," he said at his final Paris rally on Friday.

On the economic front, he has promised to break with France's statist tradition and to roll out an ambitious free-market programme that will undoubtedly set him on collision course with France's unions.

[Dawson Leery]

8. He wants to keep the EU intact with reformed border laws.

LePen is another Putin puppet who will dismantle the EU.

[moondust]

2. So much for

égalité.

I've seen Fillon described as a "neoliberal," "pro-business," "devoted Thatcherite" who wants to eliminate half a million public sector jobs. Back to the future we go: Russia to czardom, Cuba to an American (mob) colony, and France to a greedy monarchy.

[Ligyron]

3. They've had such horrible events caused by Islamic immigrants and outsiders.

I wouldn't at all be surprised if Le Pen won with her xenophobic tirades which will increase.

[LeftishBrit]

4. You know? If I had the vote there, I'd be going there to vote for Fillon...

even though he's not someone I'd vote for under any normal circumstances: out of the Thatcher stable, basically. But LePen as an opponent is not normal circumstances.

The thought of a neo-fascist (let's not use the PC term 'alt right') next door to me makes me ill. And while some people in America may have voted for the Unspeakable, not for his neo-fascism but because they always vote Republican or believe the propaganda about 'Crooked Hillary' or that he will bring back jobs, etc, I think anyone who votes for LePen knows that they're getting a fascist.

[DFW]

7. I think you nailed it perfectly

Hollande made SUCH a mess of things, he tainted the Parti Socialiste brand for a decade. Just adding a few hundred thousand more "fonctionnaires" to terrorize small businesses in an effort to bring in more revenue will never work in a country that has learned to survive by cheating an overbearing state since before the Revolution. You'll have to be a LITTLE more creative that that in France if you want to improve things.

I also think Fillon will have a fight on his hands, because Marine LePen is much more skilled in packaging her message than many of her rightist colleagues on both side of the Atlantic. I still think he should prevail, but that is if the election were held today. Another Bataclan, or even a well-publicized foiled attempt, and the odds could shift in Le Pen's favor irrevocably, not that anyone planning another such slaughter is going to work on any French politician's timetable.

[Dawson Leery]

9. Fillon is an SOB, but he is NOT dull.

Juppe is a good person/moderate. He his dull though. Nice guy, reminds me of Tim Kane.

[DFW]

10. Juppe's problem was that he IS dull

In this media age, that won't fly, especially after the dull Hollande's disaster. That was Juppé's undoing.

[Dawson Leery]

11. Fillon likes to fight.

At least he will keep the EU trade block intact. Not my first choice, Adolpha LePen is NOT an option.