France's conservative party on Saturday chose the moderate chief of the Paris region Valerie Pecresse to challenge President Emmanuel Macron next year, a pick that will likely have major influence on the shape of the campaign.
Members of The Republicans in the primary run-off vote chose Pecresse, 54, who will be its first-ever female presidential candidate, over hardliner Eric Ciotti, party leader Christian Jacob announced.The favourites ex-minister Xavier Bertrand and former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier were both knocked out and went on to back Pecresse.
The campaign has so far been waged on the right, with Macron's government tacking rightwards over the last months with tough rhetoric on immigration and preserving France's secular system.The Republicans failed to make the run-off in 2017, after its candidate Francois Fillon was felled by a graft scandal.
But in her speech, she sought to create distance from Macron, saying she would not be a "zig-zag president... who tells everyone what they want to hear. Between the outgoing president and me there is not just a difference in politics, we are different in nature."
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