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PARIS: France’s opposition UMP party was voting on Sunday for a successor to ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy in a race between his former prime minister Francois Fillon and Jean-Francois Cope, the party’s populist secretary-general.
The vote comes six months after Sarkozy’s presidential election defeat to Socialist Francois Hollande, who is now battling a slump in his popularity ratings over the parlous state of the French economy.
The UMP leader, who will be elected for three years, will be tasked with organising opposition to Hollande and containing the advance by the far-right National Front, which garnered 18 per cent of the votes in the presidential election.
The cautious and staid Fillon, who was prime minister for five years until Sarkozy was ousted by Hollande in May, is leading the opinion polls and portraying himself as a unifier.
He is squaring off against Cope, a champion of the party’s right flank. The man closest to the hearts of UMP followers remains Sarkozy himself, according to an IFOP opinion poll which found that two-thirds hope he will make a comeback and run for the presidency in 2017.
Sarkozy has hinted he might do just that, but in his absence it is Fillon who is favourite to take a majority of the 300,000 votes of UMP members.
The vote comes six months after Sarkozy’s presidential election defeat to Socialist Francois Hollande, who is now battling a slump in his popularity ratings over the parlous state of the French economy.
The UMP leader, who will be elected for three years, will be tasked with organising opposition to Hollande and containing the advance by the far-right National Front, which garnered 18 per cent of the votes in the presidential election.
The cautious and staid Fillon, who was prime minister for five years until Sarkozy was ousted by Hollande in May, is leading the opinion polls and portraying himself as a unifier.
He is squaring off against Cope, a champion of the party’s right flank. The man closest to the hearts of UMP followers remains Sarkozy himself, according to an IFOP opinion poll which found that two-thirds hope he will make a comeback and run for the presidency in 2017.
Sarkozy has hinted he might do just that, but in his absence it is Fillon who is favourite to take a majority of the 300,000 votes of UMP members.
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