Francois Fillon has won France's Republican presidential primary, after his opponent Alain Juppe conceded defeat.

Mr Fillon had won 67% of votes and Mr Juppe was on 33%, according to results from about 90% of polling stations.

The pair, both former prime ministers, were vying to become the centre-right Les Republicains party candidate in the election.

Speaking after his victory, Mr Fillon, 62, said: "I must now convince the whole country our project is the only one that can lift us up.

"My approach has been understood: France can't bear its decline.

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"It wants truth and it wants action.

"I will take up an unusual challenge for France - tell the truth and completely change its software."

Alain Juppe concedes defeat

In Paris, 71-year-old Mr Juppe congratulated Mr Fillon on the "large victory", adding: "I finish this campaign as I began it - as a free man who did not compromise what he is or what he thinks".

He called for unity and calm after a campaign during which he had accused Mr Fillon of pandering to anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim feeling.

Mr Fillon is now likely to face a spring showdown with far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who will be seeking to build on that same anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-establishment feeling.

Ms Le Pen has also promised to lower the retirement age and guarantee France's welfare safety net.

A Harris Interactive poll published on Sunday night showed Mr Fillon would beat Ms Le Pen by 67% to 33%.

Fillon's British wife: Very satisfied with election win

The victory for Mr Fillon, who is married to a Welsh woman, comes against a national unemployment rate of 10%, weak economic growth, worries about immigration and globalisation and concern about the future of a costly but valued welfare state.

In response, Mr Fillon has proposed spending cuts, increasing sales tax, scrapping a tax on the wealthy, fewer restrictions on the working week and raising the retirement age to 65.

He also wants to limit the adoption rights of gay couples, push for closer ties with Russia and focus on tackling Islamic extremism and reducing immigration to France "to a minimum".

Mr Juppe had promoted a more liberal stance with respect for religious freedom and ethnic diversity, attacking the "brutality" of his rival's manifesto.

Fillon wins French presidential primary

Mr Fillon, whose wife Penelope Clarke is British, was the prime minister from 2007 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was eliminated in the primary's first round a week ago and now is supporting him.

Mr Juppe was prime minister from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac.

In the first round of primary voting on 20 November, Mr Fillon won 44.1% of the votes, Mr Juppe 28.6% and Mr Sarkozy 20.7%.

A second round was held because no candidate secured a majority.

All French citizens over 18 - whether they are members of the Republicans party or not - can vote in the primary if they pay €2 (£1.70) in fees and sign a pledge stating they "share the republican values of the right and the centre".

Image: Marine Le Pen is campaigning on a pro-nationalist, anti-immigration ticket

Socialist Party candidates now have to announce their intention to run before 15 December and their first primary is held on 22 January.

If no candidate gains more than 50%, there is a second round a week later.

The general election is set for 23 April, with a possible second round of voting on 7 May.

The current Socialist President Francois Hollande is expected to announce in the coming weeks whether he will stand for re-election.

His deep unpopularity has undermined the position of the country's Left and there have been calls for his prime minister Manuel Valls to contest the party's primary.</s>François Fillon, the socially conservative former prime minister who plans to shrink the French state, has won the primary race to become the French right’s presidential candidate next spring.

Fillon, 62, gained support in the final days of the primary race after writing a book on the dangers of “Islamic totalitarianism” in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in France and defending a tough line on French national identity. He beat the more moderate centrist, Alain Juppé, the 71-year-old mayor of Bordeaux.

With 95% of ballots counted, Fillon had garnered 66.5% of the votes while Juppé trailed with 33.2%.

Who is François Fillon – the man who ended Sarkozy's dream? Read more

France’s two-round presidential elections in April and May are being watched as the next possible shakeup of the political system, after Donald Trump won the US presidency this month.

Polls in France have consistently shown that the far-right Front National leader, Marine Le Pen, will make it to the final round runoff but that it would be difficult for her to win. Fillon is now the favourite to face her and win the presidency next year.

In his victory speech, Fillon said the Socialist François Hollande’s presidency had been “pathetic”. France “wanted action” and had to be overhauled in a way that it “hasn’t been for 30 years”. He said France had a huge need for respect, pride and, overall, authority.

After a campaign in which he defended French national identity, he said people had voted for him because he represented “French values”. He said “I will defend those values and we will share them with everyone who, with their differences, loves France.”

On the campaign trail, Fillon, who will stand for the Republican party, argued: “France is more rightwing than it has ever been,” and that he was the only one able to tap into that mood and win France’s “ideological battle”.



He warned that France was “on the verge of revolt” and said his plan to slash half a million public sector jobs, reduce the welfare state, cut taxes for the rich and loosen business regulations was the only possible response for a demoralised country struggling with mass unemployment, a sluggish economy and a major terrorist threat.

“I’ll do everything for entrepreneurs!” he declared at his final rally in Paris, promising to free up business and create jobs to tackle a stubbornly high unemployment rate of about 10%.

Juppé, after losing what was a battle for the soul of the French right, described himself as a “free man” who had never compromised on his beliefs. He congratulated Fillon and asked his own supporters to work for “calm and reconciliation” in France.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest François Fillon casts his ballot in Paris. Photograph: Eric Feferberg/EPA

Fillon, a career politician for 35 years and a symbol of the traditionalist provincial right, is a fan of Margaret Thatcher. But his economic programme – though radical in terms of breaking with the statist traditions of the French right – falls far short of Thatcher’s.

He does not intend to privatise state companies and France’s traditionally high public spending will remain significant. Fillon served as prime minister from 2007-2012 under the unpopular president Nicolas Sarkozy, playing a key role in an administration that promised economic reform but failed to deliver.

Yet he has successfully convinced the rightwing electorate that he represents radical change.

Fillon is a Catholic traditionalist who deliberately appealed to the conservatism of the religious right and wants to increase state benefits for families.

He complained about being attacked as a “medieval reactionary” during the campaign because, having voted against France’s recent introduction of same-sex marriage, he promised to roll back certain parental rights for same-sex couples. He said it was his private belief that abortion was not a fundamental right but promised not to change French abortion law.

How François Fillon became the French right's new hope Read more

Fillon, who is on first-name terms with Vladimir Putin after they served as prime ministers in the same period, has advocated a stridently pro-Putin policy towards Russia. He said Russia was no threat, should be a partner in Syria and that European sanctions against Russia should be lifted. He said the fight against Islamic State meant France should not rule out cooperating with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.

Fillon has taken a hard line on Islamic extremism as well as the place of Islam in France, warning that “radical islam is corrupting some of our Muslim fellow citizens”. Over the summer, he said he was in favour of banning burkinis, or full-body swimsuits, from French beaches.

“No, France is not a multicultural nation,” Fillon said during the final TV debate, adding that foreigners who came to France must assimilate. He said: “When you come to someone’s house, by courtesy, you don’t take over.”

Sarkozy came third in the right’s first round vote last week, leaving the field open to Fillon and Juppé.

The spotlight will now fall on the governing French Socialist party, which is yet to choose its presidential candidate and which will hold its own primary race in January.

The bitterly divided party has been galvinised by Fillon’s nomination, hoping to unite voters against a “French Thatcher”, saying he threatens France’s cherished social model, the wide-ranging social safety net of generous unemployment benefits, pensions and healthcare.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alain Juppé votes at a polling station in Bordeaux. Photograph: Romain Perrocheau/Getty Images

Hollande is expected to announce within days whether he will stand for re-election. His party is in disarray and there are serious doubts among Socialists about Hollande’s chances of even making it past the first round. He is the least popular French president since the second world war, with his satisfaction rating in one recent poll as low as 4%.

Divisions were evident when the prime minister, Manuel Valls, on Sunday left his options open as a potential challenger to Hollande. Valls told the French weekly Journal du Dimanche that he wanted to dispel the idea that the left had no chance of retaining power.

Emmanuel Macron, Hollande’s rebellious former economy minister, has also launched an independent, centrist, outsider bid for the French presidency, promising to lead a people’s “democratic revolution” against the “vacuous” political system.

The hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who this weekend won the backing of the French Communist party, is also likely to draw votes away from the Socialists.</s>PARIS -- Francois Fillon won France's first-ever conservative presidential primary Sunday after promising drastic free-market changes and a crackdown on immigration and Islamic extremism, beating a more moderate rival who had warned of encroaching populism.

"President! President!" chanted the former prime minister's supporters as he declared victory over Alain Juppe in a nationwide runoff election.

Polls suggest the 62-year-old Fillon, prime minister from 2007-12 under former President Nicolas Sarkozy, would have a good chance of winning the French presidency in the April-May election.

Fillon campaigned on promises of slashing public spending, capping immigration, support for traditional family values and friendlier ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Fillon enjoyed a surprise surge in popularity in recent weeks over longtime front-runner Juppe, who also previously served as the country's prime minister.

In a sober victory speech, Fillon promised to defend "French values" and said France needs "a complete change of software."

"There is in our country an immense need for respect and pride. There is also a call for the authority of the state, and exemplary behavior by those who lead it," he said.

Fillon, whom Juppe had accused of running a divisive campaign that catered to the far right, struck a slightly more inclusive tone Sunday night.

"No one should feel excluded from a society that I want to see more just and with more solidarity," he said.

Juppe, 71, congratulated Fillon on his "wide victory." During the primary campaign, he expressed similar ideas as his rival on the French economy, but tried to rally conservatives around a more tolerant attitude toward France's ethnic, religious and social diversity.

On the basis of results from about 88 percent of polling stations, organizers of the center-right Republicans party primary said Fillon led with 67 percent of the vote compared with 33 percent for Juppe.

Fillon will campaign against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is running an anti-establishment campaign that particularly targets immigrants, France's large Muslim minority group, and the European Union.

Socialist President Francois Hollande is expected to announce in the coming weeks whether he will seek re-election, but the French left has been deeply weakened by Hollande's extreme unpopularity.

Both Fillon and Juppe are high-profile leaders of the Republicans party who knocked Sarkozy, their former boss, out of the primary's first round of voting a week ago. Sarkozy then threw his support behind Fillon.

Sunday's runoff came after a bruising and highly adversarial end phase to the monthslong primary contest, an American-style effort to end party infighting and bolster support for the party's nominee. The conservatives previously chose their candidate internally.

Fillon, a conservative Catholic who opposed France's law legalizing same-sex marriages, said he plans to reduce immigration to France "to a minimum" -- positioning himself firmly to Juppe's right.

Fillon wants to drop sanctions against Russia over its aggressive actions in Ukraine and partner with Russia in the fight against Islamic State extremists. Fillon insists "Russia poses no threat" to the West, while Juppe wants France to continue putting pressure on Putin on various fronts.

They both pledged to cut public spending, reduce the number of civil servants, raise the retirement age from 62 to 65, end the 35-hour work week and cut business taxes.

All French citizens over 18 -- whether they are members of the Republicans party or not -- were eligible to vote in the primary, if they paid 2 euros in fees and signed a pledge stating that they "share the republican values of the right and the center."

Information for this article was contributed by Thomas Adamson of The Associated Press.
François Fillon wins in a landslide with two-thirds of the vote (90% counted). Alain Juppé subsequently concedes defeat and says he will support Fillon for President.