François Fillon, a free-market social conservative, has recently won France’s center-right primary by a landslide, positioning him as the leading mainstream candidate to take on National Front leader Marine Le Pen in the presidential election this spring.
Mr. Fillon, a former prime minister who compares himself to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, shot ahead of Bordeaux Mayor Alain Juppé in the runoff of the Républicains’ primary after a partial vote tally late Sunday, garnering 69.5% of the votes counted. Mr. Juppé conceded defeat shortly after the early results.