The next French presidential election, which will be held in spring next year, was meant to mark Nicolas Sarkozy’s return to political power. Instead, he couldn’t even make it to the second round of the primary for the Républicains. He was beaten into third place after his former prime minister, François Fillon, secured a surprise first-round victory. Alain Juppé, widely seen as the front-runner, came second.
For Fillon, it was a victory not only over the pundits – who had largely written off his candidacy – but over internal opponents on the right of French politics. Born in the northern city of Le Mans, the 62-year-old is not an énarque – a graduate of the École nationale d’administration, the school that is to the French political establishment what Oxford and a PPE degree are to Britain’s governing class. However, he has been a prominent figure in French politics for decades, serving as a minister when Juppé was prime minister in the 1990s, as an aide to Sarkozy in his first, successful campaign for the presidency, and then as premier throughout the latter’s sole term as president (2007-2012).
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