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| Nicolas Sarkozy |
French voters were choosing a conservative presidential candidate on Sunday in a primary contest whose winner is seen as likely to become head of state in next spring’s election.
With the French left in disarray under the deeply unpopular President Francois Hollande, pollsters suggest that the centre-right presidential nominee will meet and defeat the National Front’s eurosceptic, anti-immigration leader Marine Le Pen in a vote next May.
Former prime minister Alain Juppe, a moderate conservative, had until recently appeared on track to win the nomination of the Les Republicains party and its centre-right allies.
But over the past week the contest has been transformed into a tight race between Juppe, former president Nikolas Sarkozy and Francois Fillon, another former prime minister, the polls show.
Juppe has lost his lead to surges by two men to the right of him on the political spectrum. Sarkozy has sought to tap into populist sentiment with some of his policy statements while Fillon is proposing tough measures to shake up the economy.
The French presidential vote is shaping up as another test of strength between weakened mainstream parties and rising populist forces.
After Britain’s vote to quit the European Union and Donald Trump’s surprise U.S. election win this year, few are prepared to write off Le Pen’s chances.
NEW CONTEST
There are other uncertainties in Sunday’s vote.
It is the first centre-right primary to be held in France, and anyone who pays 2 euros ($2.12) and signs a form showing support for the party’s values can take part. That means voting patterns are to some extent untested and leaves potential for tactical voting by left and far-right supporters as well.
“I’ll be voting Juppe, probably,” Dimitri Cournede, aged 34 from Abbeville in northern France and who considers himself a left-wing voter, told Reuters by telephone.
“I think its important to make a statement and send the message that we don’t want the right wing to associate with the FN, or at least to endorse their positions on immigration and stuff like that,” he added.
An outright win in Sunday’s primary would require one of the seven candidates to win over half of the votes. That is seen as very unlikely and a run-off between the two leading contenders will otherwise take place next Sunday, Nov. 27.
Early indications of the outcome could come within two hours of the end of voting at 1900 local time (1800 GMT), but a tight vote could take a definitive result much later into the night.
Much could depend on turnout, with polls saying a high level favours Juppe.
A total of 1.138 million votes had been cast by midday based on a count conducted in 67 percent of the more than 10,000 polling stations, Thierry Solere, president of the committee organising the vote, said on LCI radio.
In the first round of a Socialist primary in 2012, 2.6 million voters took part, with 744,527 votes having been counted in two-thirds of polling stations by midday.
RIVAL PLATFORMS
Fillon, who until last week trailed far behind in the polls, promises to do away with the 35-hour working week, cut half a million public sector jobs and slash the cost of government.
These policies are hard to sell in a country where proposals for market-oriented reform often arouse protests, but they resonate with voters of the right worried about stagnant economic growth and their income tax bill.
Until Fillon’s campaign gathered paced, the bruising campaign battle had focused on the duel between Juppe and Sarkozy and their very different policy platforms, both seeking to counter the rise of populism that threatens mainstream parties in Europe.
Against a backdrop of a year-old state of emergency after deadly militant attacks on home soil and in the midst of Europe’s migrant crisis, Sarkozy, 61, styles himself as the voice of France’s “silent majority”.
He vows to ban the Muslim veil from public universities and body-covering burkini swimsuits from beaches and wants to renegotiate EU treaties, reining in the powers of the European Commission and reforming the Schengen free-travel zone.
Juppe, 71, has sought to galvanise the political centre-right, rejecting the “suicidal” identity politics of Sarkozy that he says will deepen rifts between France’s secular state and religious minorities.
But Juppe has struggled to rouse the passions of voters and all the momentum was against him on the eve of the vote.
Fillon headed Sarkozy’s conservative government between 2007 and 2012. He promises cost-cutting on a scale to which his rivals do not dare commit in a country with one of Europe’s highest public spending levels.
Should Sarkozy or Fillon emerge as Le Pen’s conservative opponent, polls and analysts suggest her electoral prospects could be higher than if she faces Juppe, who is seen as having a wider voter appeal than his two rivals.
