Sarkozy out of Presidential Race, Fillon Likely to Be Nominee

Sarkozy will support Francois Fillon in the runoff for 2017 French presidential elections on 27 November.

• Ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy recognises defeat after the presidential primary polls conducted on Sunday
  
• Francois Fillon takes big lead, Alain Juppe second
  
• Fillon and Juppe to fight it out in 27 November runoff
  
• Winner of runoff favourite to win presidency

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.

A social conservative with economically liberal ideas, Fillon will face Alain Juppe, another ex-prime minister, in a runoff on November 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.

Alain Juppe To Carry on Fighting

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.

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.

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.

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 left-wing 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.