French Republican Primary Elections; Sarkozy Loses Nomination Chance

Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president, accepted defeat in the French Republican primary elections. The final candidate will be chosen between two former prime ministers, François Fillon and Alain Juppé. Sarkozy has announced his support for Mr. Fillon. Fillon secured 44% of the votes, while Juppé and Sarkozy came in second and third with 28% and 20.5% of the votes, respectively. Counting from 9,300 out of 10,300 polling stations in the French Republican primary shows that François Fillon, the conservative prime minister from 2007 to 2012 during Sarkozy's presidency, obtained 44.2% of the votes, while Alain Juppé, a centrist conservative who was prime minister from 1995 to 1997 during Jacques Chirac's presidency, followed him with 28.4%. Mr. Juppé held several ministerial responsibilities during Sarkozy's presidency and was foreign minister for a year. In the competition against these two former prime ministers, Nicolas Sarkozy did not exceed 20.5% of the votes and lost hope of surpassing Alain Juppé as the counting of remaining votes continued. The two candidates who received the highest percentage of votes will compete again on November 27 to determine the final candidate. Alain Juppé, who led a campaign with the slogan 'Happy Identity,' was a frontrunner in polls for months, but in recent weeks, there has been a close competition among him, François Fillon, and Nicolas Sarkozy. François Fillon has promised measures to improve the economic situation.