This week the knives were sharpening in the battle between rivals to become the 2017 presidential election candidate for the French conservative opposition party Les Républicains, with latest contenders bringing the total to ten. Defying earlier predictions, the current clear favourite, ahead of primaries to be held in the autumn, is Alain Juppé, the 70-year-old former prime minister whose principal rival is his party's leader, Nicolas Sarkozy. Mediapart political correspondent Ellen Salvi examines the striking resemblance of Juppé’s successful campaign to that of French President François Hollande in his bid to wrestle power from Sarkozy four years ago.
Since the launch of his campaign to become next year’s presidential candidate for the French conservative opposition party Les Républicains, former French prime minister Alain Juppé has developed tactics that have more than a passing resemblance to those current socialist president François Hollande employed in his bid for power four years ago. There are the same words, the same opponent, and the same aim.
