France’s Fillon touts himself as agent of change as he wins debate with presidential primary rival Juppe

An assertive Francois Fillon told French voters on Thursday that rival Alain Juppe “does not really want to change things”, in a debate days before a vote to decide which one will run in the 2017 presidential election.

The winner of Sunday’s conservative primaries’ vote will have a good chance of being elected president in May, considering the divisions on the left and opinion polls showing a majority of voters opposed to seeing the far-right in power. A flash poll showed Fillon came out on top in the debate.

“Alain Juppe does not really want to change things. He’s staying within the system, he just wants to improve it,” Fillon said in the televised debate on Thursday. “My project is more radical.”

Fillon, 62, a social conservative who champions free-market economic policies, unexpectedly stormed to first place in the seven-strong primaries’ first round last Sunday, with a strong lead on 71-year-old Juppe, who had been the favourite in opinion polls for months. Both are former prime ministers.

In an online survey by Elabe pollsters of 908 people who watched Thursday’s debate, 71 per cent of conservative and centre-right voters found Fillon, an admirer of late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, more convincing than Juppe.

Fillon was also ahead among all viewers independent of their political stripe but by a smaller margin, 57 per cent versus 41 per cent for Juppe.

Both propose supply-side economic strategy with cuts in public spending and raising the retirement age.