France's rightwing Républicains party (LR) on Sunday elected as leader Christian Jacob, head of the troubled party's parliamentary group, who will now steer them to municipal elections in March, reports FRANCE 24.
The 59-year-old former minister, who was the favourite in the poll, was elected in the first round with 62.58 percent of the vote, the party said.
With five months to go before France holds municipal elections, Jacob will be tasked with turning around the fortunes of a party that has been in decline for two years.
The Republicans won just 8.48 percent in May's European Parliament elections, compared with 22.23 percent in France's 2017 parliamentary polls.
The rout led then LR leader Laurent Wauquiez to step down from the party formerly called the Union for a Popular Movement, which won the presidency under Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007.