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2016 The Republicans (France) presidential primary


The Republicans held a presidential primary election, officially called the open primary of the right and centre (French: primaire ouverte de la droite et du centre), to select a candidate for the 2017 presidential election. It took place on 20 November 2016, with a runoff on 27 November since no candidate obtained at least 50% of the vote in the first round. It was the first time an open primary had been held for The Republicans or its predecessor parties.

In the first round of The Republicans primary on 20 November, François Fillon won an upset victory with 44% of the vote, while Alain Juppé—long held by most opinion polls as the favourite to win the nomination—came in a distant second with 29%. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was projected to come in second behind Juppé, was eliminated with just under 21% of the vote.

In the runoff round, Fillon won by an even larger margin with nearly twice as many votes as Juppé (66.5% to 33.5%). Of the six departments and similar areas won by Sarkozy in the first round, all switched to Fillon in the runoff. Similarly, of the thirteen departments and similar areas that originally voted for Juppé, eight switched to Fillon in the second round. The constituency for French residents overseas was won by Juppé in the first round and Fillon in the second round.

Ballot papers used in the first round

Unlike previous Union for a Popular Movement primaries, this was the first primary to be open to the general public. The first round of voting took place on 20 November 2016. Voting booths were open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. A runoff was held on 27 November after no candidate obtained at least 50% of the vote in the first round.

All registered voters were allowed to vote in the primary, as well as minors whose eighteenth birthday was before 23 April 2017. 10,228 voting booths were established with each person on the voting register attached to an office. To receive a ballot, a voter must pay 2 euros.

People abroad who wanted to vote in The Republicans party were given electronic voting machines to do so.

Candidates from The Republicans had to obtain the support of 20 members of the National Assembly, 2,500 party members and 250 elected representatives to participate. For candidates from other parties, the party themselves would decide the conditions for their submission into the primary. Seven candidates were accepted by the High Authority on September 6, 2016:

Name, ageDetails and notes
Jean-François Copé (61)President of the UMP 2012–2014
General Secretary of the UMP 2010–2012
Mayor of Meaux since 2005 and 1995–2002
Minister of the Budget 2005–2007
Member of the National Assembly for Seine-et-Marne's 6th constituency since 2002
Copé announced his candidacy on 14 February 2016 at 20:00 on France 2 – while Nicolas Sarkozy was speaking on TF1 – a few weeks after the release of his book The French Start. After nearly 18 months of media silence, Copé said he was "ready" to return to center stage. Copé was quoted on France 2 as "being very hypocritical to delay unnecessarily", even when a judge's decision on the "sad Bygmalion case" arrived the previous Monday. Copé had been placed under attended witness status and thus escaped indictment.
François Fillon (72)Prime Minister of France 2007–2012
Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing 2012–2012
Minister of National Education 2004–2005
Minister of Social Affairs 2002–2004
Member of the National Assembly for Paris' 2nd constituency since 2012
Senator for Sarthe 2005–2007
Fillon announced his candidacy in April 2015 by declaring that he is "a candidate to bring a project of rupture and progress around an ambition to make France the first European power in ten years". He announced in January 2016 that he would leave politics if he fails to win the primary. Fillon had also committed, as Alain Juppé did, to serve only one term if he was elected President in 2017.
Alain Juppé (80)Prime Minister of France 1995–1997
Minister of Foreign and European Affairs 2011–2012 and 1993–1995
Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs 2010–2011
Minister of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Sea 2007–2007
Mayor of Bordeaux since 2006 and 1995–2004
Government Spokesperson 1986–1988
Minister of the Budget 1986–1988
Juppé announced his intention to contest the 2016 Republicans (formerly UMP) internal election, which decided who will be the candidate of the right-wing for the 2017 presidential election, on 20 August 2014. The most popular politician in France, he is described by The Daily Telegraph as "a consensual conservative seen as less divisive than Nicolas Sarkozy".
Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet (52)Member of the National Assembly for Essonne's 4th constituency since 2012 and 2002–2007
Mayor of Longjumeau 2008–2013
Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing 2010–2012
Kosciusko-Morizet declared her candidacy on 8 March 2016, on the occasion of the International Women's Day, stating that "I think we can finally change politics. I am a candidate to give everyone, every French person, control of their life."
Bruno Le Maire (56)Member of the French National Assembly for Eure since 2012
French Minister of Agriculture 2009–2012
Le Maire officially declared his candidacy at a public meeting in Vesoul on 23 February 2016. "My decision is simple, strong, unwavering. Yes, I am a candidate for president," he said on stage. Le Maire had earlier left little doubt about his participation in the primary. "If I told you that I was not getting ready for the primary, I would be lying. And I do not like to lie," he had said on RTL 4 in January. In the wake of his candidacy, Bruno Le Maire has also released a book about his vision of France entitled Do Not Resign. He already enjoyed broad support, including that of Michel Barnier and Yves Jégo, even as the UDI had not yet decided on its participation in the primary.
Jean-Frédéric Poisson (63)President of the Christian Democratic Party since 2013
Member of the National Assembly for Yvelines since 2012
As head of the Christian Democratic Party, he was their candidate in the centre-right's 2016 primary.
Nicolas Sarkozy (71)President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra 2007–2012
Minister of the Interior 2005–2007
Minister of Finance March 2004–November 2004
Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine 1983-2002
Sarkozy announced his intention to contest the primary on 22 August 2016.
  • Xavier Bertrand, President of the Regional Council of Hauts-de-France since 2016, former Mayor of Saint-Quentin from 2010-2016; former Minister of Labour, Employment and Health from 2010–2012; former Secretary-General of the UMP from 2008–2010
  • Christian Estrosi, President of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur since 2015; Mayor of Nice since 2008; former Deputy Minister of Industry from 2009–2010; former Deputy Minister of Overseas France from 2007–2008; former Deputy Minister of Planning of the Territory from 2005–2007

Graphical summary of the polling for the first round

Poll sourceDate(s)administeredSample size
Le Parisien/i-Télé-CQFD5–6 Jun 201498813%19%28%40%
Ifop13–16 Apr 20157045%33%12%42%8%
Ifop4–9 Jun 20151,8797%42%13%33%5%
Ipsos25–31 Aug 201551911%40%11%34%4%
Ifop3–4 Sep 20151,0799%30%3%21%37%
Ifop25 Sep–9 Oct 20155,2208%37%2%6%37%10%
BVA/Presse Régionale6–15 Oct 201511,2448%31%2%11%38%10%
Ifop9 Oct-16 Nov 20155,2749%35%2%9%34%11%
Opinion Way26 Oct–17 Nov 201540021%29%10%11%29%
Ifop16 Dec 2015–7 Jan 20165,98912%38%4%12%29%5%
Ifop11-22 Jan 20164,97412%41%2%10%30%5%
Ipsos-Sopra Steria22-31 Jan 20161,3339%44%2%11%32%2%
BVA/Orange et iTélé11-12 Feb 20161,05311%47%9%10%11%12%
Ifop1-15 Feb 20164,96711%39%3%11%32%7%
Elabe/BFMTV16 Feb-16 Mar 20165,00111%41%4%13%23%8%
Odoxa/Le Parisien18 Feb-10 Mar 20164,0369%41%3%16%23%8%
Ifop23 Feb-18 Mar 20168,0908%38%3%16%27%8%
Ifop29 Mar-14 Apr 20165,77515%37%3%12%26%7%
Odoxa/Le Parisien17 Mar-29 Apr 20161,6609%41%4%15%24%7%
Ifop28 Apr-20 May 20168,60412%35%4%13%27%9%
Opinion Way19–23 May 201680813%39%3%13%27%5%
Odoxa9 Jun 20161,0339%28%7%54%2%
Ifop25 May–17 Jun 20161,03711%35%4%13%28%9%
Ipsos17–26 Jun 20161,2349%38%2%16%30%5%
Elabe17 May–29 Jun 201662411%39%2%12%29%7%
Harris Interactive Archived 2016-09-20 at the Wayback Machine12-14 Sept 201656310%37%3%9%37%4%
Ipsos9–18 Sept 20161,21610%37%4%13%33%3%
Ifop22 Aug–5 Sept 201662010%35%4%10%33%8%
BVA13–20 Sept 201677411%38%4%11%34%2%
Ifop9–26 Sept 201652712%35%4%13%31%5%
Kantar Sofres21-26 Sept 20165618%39%4%13%33%3%
Harris Interactive Archived 2016-10-09 at the Wayback Machine3–5 Oct 201665112%39%3%8%35%3%
Odoxa1 Sept–6 Oct 201668011%39%4.5%12%31%2.5%
Kantar Sofres30 Sept–6 Oct 201658611%42%4%11%28%4%
Odoxa10–20 Oct 201662111%43%4%13%26%3%
Harris Interactive Archived 2016-11-12 at the Wayback Machine7–9 Nov 201697517%39%4%7%31%2%
Kantar Sofres Archived 2016-11-16 at the Wayback Machine7–10 Nov 201671418%36%4%9%30%3%
Odoxa9–11 Nov 201655420%36%5%8%26%5%
BVA3–13 Nov 201692818%37%4%9%29%3%
Ipsos Sopra-Steria8–13 Nov 20161,33722%36%3%7%29%3%
Ifop31 Oct–14 Nov 201664720%33%3%8%30%6%
Elabe9–15 Nov 201668021%34%5%7%30%3%
Opinion Way13–15 Nov 201682825%33%4%9%25%4%
Ifop10–17 Nov 201674427%31%2%7%30%3%
Ipsos18 Nov 201680730%29%3.5%5%29%3.5%
First round results20 November 201644.1%28.6%2.6%2.4%20.7%1.8%
Poll sourceDate(s)administeredSample size
Odoxa/Le Parisien17 Mar-29 Apr 20161,66072%28%
Opinion Way19–23 May 201680866%34%
Poll sourceDate(s)administeredSample size
Opinion Way20 Nov 20163,09544%56%
Ifop-Fiducial21-23 Nov 20166,90135%65%
Second round results27 November 201633.5%66.5%

In the first round of the primary on November 20, Fillon won an upset victory with 44% of the vote, while Juppé - long held by most opinion polls as the favorite to win the nomination - came in a distant second with 29%. Sarkozy, who was projected to come in second behind Juppé, was eliminated with just under 21% of the vote. In his concession speech, Sarkozy endorsed Fillon and vowed to "embark on a life with more private passions and fewer public passions." This led to some media outlets declaring that "Sarkozy's political career [had] been effectively ended."

In the runoff round, Fillon won by an even larger margin with nearly twice as many votes as Juppé (66.5% to 33.5%). Of the five departments won by Sarkozy in the first round, all but one switched to Fillon in the runoff. Similarly, of the thirteen departments that originally voted for Juppé, nine switched to Fillon in the second round.

CandidatesParties1st round2nd round
François FillonThe RepublicansLR1,890,26644.1%2,919,87466.5%
Alain JuppéThe RepublicansLR1,224,85528.6%1,471,89833.5%
Nicolas SarkozyThe RepublicansLR886,13720.7%
Nathalie Kosciusko-MorizetThe RepublicansLR109,6552.6%
Bruno Le MaireThe RepublicansLR102,1682.4%
Jean-Frédéric PoissonChristian Democratic PartyPCD62,3461.5%
Jean-François CopéThe RepublicansLR12,7870.3%
Total4,288,214100%4,391,772100%
Valid votes4,288,21499.8%4,391,77299.7%
Spoilt and null votes9,8830.2%13,0400.3%
Total4,298,097100%4,404,812100%
Table of results ordered by number of votes received in first round. Official results by High Authority.
Source: First round result Archived 2016-11-24 at the Wayback Machine · Second round result
  • Socialist Party (France) presidential primary, 2017

  • Official website and results

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