FRANCOIS FILLON won France’s first-ever conservative presidential primary Sunday, beating fellow former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, 71, in a U.S.-style primary to win the nomination of the Republicans party and its allies.

    The new flag-bearer of French conservatives came from behind a week ago to establish himself as the new champion of the right.

    Fillon, 62, has professed admiration for Britain’s 1980s prime minister Margaret Thatcher and vowed to slash public spending to shrink the French state.

    “You have to tear the house down to properly rebuild it,” he has said.

    Fillon, the candidate who will represent the French right in next year’s presidential election, is a free-market reformer, devout Catholic and motor sport fan who has promised to transform France.

    “France has never been more right-wing,” Fillon, who was a voice of moderation as premier under Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 to 2012 but has since shifted to the right, declared last week.

    For too long traditionalists had been stereotyped as “reactionaries nostalgic for a musty France,” he said.

    The unflappable father of five who himself admitted in a M6 television interview he had a “boring image” has emerged as the right’s best hope to retake power after five years of Socialist rule. Polls show him likely to go head-to-head with Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front (FN), in the second round of the election in May.

    In the first round of the primary Nov. 20, Fillon took more than double the votes garnered by Sarkozy, who once dismissed him as a “Mr. Nobody.”

    Perhaps because of his understated style, Fillon was not taken seriously until his late acceleration in the two-month primary campaign.

    An amateur rally driver who was born in Le Mans, home of the world-renowned 24-hour race, he himself had always predicted he would make the final.

    After a series of assured performances in TV debates, voters swung in behind him as an alternative to the divisive Sarkozy and to Juppe, seen by many as lacking reformist zeal.

    Fillon has pledged radical changes to kickstart the ailing French economy and drive down unemployment stuck at around 10 percent.

    He has pledged to scrap the 35-hour week, one of the sacred cows of the French left.

    He formed a bond with Russian President Vladimir Putin when both men overlapped as prime ministers from 2008-2012 and their closeness has led to questions about his foreign policy.(SD-Agencies)