François Fillon

François Fillon (2010)

François Fillon [ fʀɑ̃ˈswa fiˈjõ ] (born March 4, 1954 in Le Mans , Département Sarthe ) is a French politician . From 1993 to 2005 he held ministerial posts in various cabinets. From May 2007 to May 2012 he was the Prime Minister of France , the only one during Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency , and headed three cabinets.

Fillon ran as a candidate for the Les Républicains party in the 2017 presidential election and was a favorite for months until an affair over the employment of family members damaged him. In the first round of voting on April 23, 2017, Fillon received 20.01% of the vote, trailing Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen and being eliminated from the race. On June 29, 2020, he was sentenced to five years in prison (three of which were suspended) for misappropriating government funds and bogus employment.

education

As the eldest son of the notary Michel Fillon and the historian Anne Soulet, François grew up with his three brothers in Cérans-Foulletourte , a village in the Sarthe department. He continued his school career at the Collège Saint-Michel-des-Perrais in Parigné-le-Pôlin . He later switched to the Lycée Notre-Dame de Sainte-Croix in Le Mans, which was directed by the Jesuits . In 1972 he received his Baccalaureate .

Fillon then began studying public law at the Université du Maine (in Le Mans), which he completed in 1976 with a master's degree ( Maîtrise ). This was followed in Paris in 1977 with a higher degree ( DEA ) in public law at the University of Paris V (René Descartes University) and in political science at the Institut d'études politiques . During these years he worked several times as an intern at the AFP news agency and considered a career as a journalist.

Political career until 2016

Starts as an employee in parliament and ministries

Fillon's political career began in 1976 as a parliamentary assistant to Joël Le Theule, a member of his home department in Sarthe . When he was appointed Minister of Transport in 1977, Fillon succeeded him as Deputy Office Manager of the Minister ( chef adjoint du cabinet ), and in 1980 he moved to the Ministry of Defense in the same position . In 1981 he briefly became head of department ( chef du service ) for legislative and parliamentary work at Industry Minister André Giraud .

Activity as a mandate holder

After the early death of his mentor Le Theule, Fillon was elected to the National Assembly in the Sarthe department in 1981 . In all subsequent elections he was re-elected as a deputy to the National Assembly; in 1993, 2002 and 2007 he resigned shortly after the election to take on government functions, and also shortly before the end of the 1997 to 2002 legislative period. In parliament he was a member of the Defense Committee, from 1986 to 1988 committee chairman.

At the same time, he took over electoral posts at local and regional level from 1981:

• in the city of Sablé-sur-Sarthe 1981 to 1986 as a local councilor, from March 1983 to 2001 as mayor; from 2001 as a councilor in the suburb of Solesmes
• Member of the General Council of the Sarthe Department, from 1985 as Vice-President and from 1992 to 1998 as its President
• later (from 1988) in the Council of the Pays de la Loire region as its President, until May 2004

Party functions

From 1997 he acted as party secretary in the RPR party founded by Jacques Chirac , responsible for association work. In 1998 he became press spokesman for the RPR Executive Committee.

In 2002 he was a founding member of the UMP , which was re-formed as a bourgeois gathering movement, and was primarily responsible for the party program. During the reign of Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP), Fillon was considered a representative of the left-wing Gaullist wing around Philippe Séguin within the UMP.

Cabinet member

In the Raffarin I and II cabinets under Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin (May 2002 to March 2004) he was Minister for Social Affairs, Labor and Solidarity and initiated a controversial pension reform. Despite considerable protests and demonstrations by the population, the government stuck to the project. The Loi du 21 août 2003 portant réforme des retraites is often called loi Fillon sur les retraites in France . At the same time, there was a reform of the working time regulation for the 35-hour week .

In the Raffarin III cabinet (March 2004 to May 2005) he was Minister for National Education, Higher Education and Research (successor to Luc Ferry ). He ran a reform of the Abitur exams (Baccalauréat). Graduating students demonstrated; in the spring of 2005 there was a blockade movement. Fillon then submitted only part of the bill to parliament for ratification. The Loi d'orientation et de program pour l'avenir de l'école is often called loi Fillon .

Fillon was considered a supporter of Jacques Chirac, President from 1995 to 2007. Chirac dissolved the Raffarin III cabinet on May 31, 2005 after the referendum on the European Constitution had failed ; Fillon saw himself left out in the formation of the de Villepin cabinet . Angry, he stepped in front of the press with clear criticism of Chirac and sided with Sarkozy's candidacy in the 2007 presidential election . Sarkozy won that election.

Seat in the Senate (2005 to 2007)

Since a by-election to the French Senate in September 2005, he has represented the Sarthe department there . The mandate ended with the assumption of the role of Prime Minister. He had already been elected to the département in the regular Senate election in September 2004, but resigned his mandate after a few weeks in favor of his government function.

French Prime Minister (2007 to 2012)

On May 17, 2007, one day after his inauguration or twelve days after his election as French President , Nicolas Sarkozy appointed his closest confidante as Prime Minister during the presidential campaign. On June 18, 2007, he was confirmed in office by Sarkozy after the UMP won the parliamentary election .

On November 13, 2010, Fillon and his entire cabinet resigned from office. A day later, President Sarkozy reappointed him prime minister. This step enabled a comprehensive reshuffle of the cabinet, which observers also saw as setting the course for the 2012 presidential election . In view of the global financial crisis, Sarkozy and Fillon had initiated a comprehensive program of reforms, which was accompanied by protests and strikes and which caused Sarkozy's popularity to decline.

As part of the Arab Spring , mass protests against the dictator Hosni Mubarak began in Egypt at the end of January 2011 (see Revolution in Egypt 2011 ). On February 7, 2011, Fillon had to admit that he had taken a Nile cruise with family at Mubarak's expense at the end of 2010, including a flight with an Egyptian government plane to the temples in Abu Simbel and exclusive accommodation on the Nile island of Elephantine .

On May 10, 2012, as is customary after the presidential election , the Fillon government announced its resignation. Fillon remained in office until his successor was appointed on May 15, 2012.

Fillon is the only Prime Minister to date to have served for the full term of a state president. With a term of office of 4 years, 11 months and 23 days (and an additional five days as executive prime minister), he is the second longest incumbent Prime Minister of the fifth republic after Georges Pompidou (6 years, 2 months and 26 days). He also led France's second longest-serving government (Fillon II, June 18, 2007 to November 13, 2010) after the government of Lionel Jospin (1997 to 2002).

Before the 2012 presidential election , Fillon had been traded as a candidate for the UMP if Sarkozy had not run again.

After serving as prime minister

Fillon was re-elected to the National Assembly in the 2012 general election, this time for the second constituency of Paris .

Fillon ran alongside Jean-François Copé for the UMP party presidency. In the November 18, 2012 election against Copé, overshadowed by allegations of manipulation, Fillon lost just under 49.97 to 50.03 percent. Fillon then stated on November 21 that he had discovered errors in the election results: results from three overseas constituencies with which he had won the election against Copé had not been counted. Fillon called the UMP arbitration board and proposed Alain Juppé as interim party chairman until a decision on the close result was made. After the Arbitration Commission also confirmed Copé's election, Fillon held on to allegations of manipulation. As a result of the disputes, 68 members of the National Assembly split off from the UMP faction on November 27, 2012 and founded the new Rassemblement faction - UMP , of which Fillon became chairman. After the mediation of Jean-Pierre Raffarin , the threatening split in the UMP could be avoided, the camp around Fillon was integrated into the party leadership and the R-UMP faction was dissolved again.

After Copé resigned from the presidency of the UMP on June 15, 2014, Fillon took over the management of the UMP on an interim basis with Alain Juppé and Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

Candidate for the 2017 presidential election

Victory in the Republican primary

Fillon was considered hopeless for a long time when he applied for the 2017 presidential candidacy of the Republicans (new name of the UMP from the end of 2015). A poll in August 2015 estimated his approval among supporters of the right and the center at 11 percent, among supporters of the Republicans at 9 percent. With that he appeared far behind Alain Juppé and Nicolas Sarkozy . Fillon's campaign did not start out happily; in the media it was discussed that Fillon used an earlier campaign slogan by Arnaud Montebourg ("Le courage de la vérité"). François Hollande made public in October 2016 that Fillon had asked him at a meeting to support the investigation of the law enforcement authorities against Nicolas Sarkozy in order to weaken him in the election campaign.

In the primary elections for his party's presidential candidacy in November 2016, he caught up in polls shortly before the first ballot and surprisingly received 44.1 percent of the vote. Alain Juppé received 28.6%, Nicolas Sarkozy 20.7%. He won the runoff election against Alain Juppé with 66.5 percent of the vote.

Fillon stands for a Catholic- conservative socio-political and a liberal economic-political course. The competitiveness of the French economy is to be improved, among other things, by abolishing the 35-hour week and weakening the unions. He also wants to significantly restrict state health care. The state budget is to be reduced by 100 billion euros and 500,000 positions in the public service are to be cut. In 1982 he voted against the impunity of homosexuality, in 2013 against gay marriage. Fillon also advocates a restriction on the right to adopt homosexual couples, a ban on the burkini and the expulsion of all foreigners who are “connected to terrorist networks”. In terms of European policy, Fillon wants to strengthen the nation states within the European Union. In the pre-election campaign he emphasized his good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and advocated cooperation with Bashar al-Assad against the IS terrorist militia in the Syrian conflict . He described Angela Merkel's refugee policy as an important reason for the result of the vote in the Brexit referendum in Great Britain in mid-2016.

2017 presidential election

During the campaign for the first round of the 2017 presidential election , the affair over his wife's bogus employment broke out. On March 1, 2017, Fillon announced that he would now be formally accused. He had received a summons before the responsible examining magistrate for March 15 and would follow them. The investigations against him are "politically motivated". After the official charges against Fillon became known on March 1, 2017, many of his supporters turned away from him. On the same day, Bruno Le Maire announced his withdrawal from the campaign team. On March 3, 2017, Fillon's press officer followed with a corresponding statement on Twitter. Opinion polls showed Fillon in a low popularity and showed that he would be eliminated in the presidential election in the first round (winners would be Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron ). Several of Fillon's previous supporters announced their withdrawal. Among them were many who had supported Alain Juppé in the primary , which was taken as an indication that he was ready for a new candidacy in the event of Fillon resigning. On March 3, 2017, the Union des démocrates et indépendants (UDI) also terminated its support for Fillon and asked the Républicains to replace their top candidate. On March 5, Fillon announced, among other things, at a mass rally in Paris that he wanted to maintain his candidacy and spoke of a “possible instrumentalization of the judiciary” and “shameful practices” with a view to the investigation against him Juppé asked for a new candidacy and that evening the Republican party executive declared its "unanimous support" for Fillon.

In the first round of the 2017 presidential election on April 23, 2017, Fillon received only 20.01% of the vote as a result of the affair; he was thus behind Marine Le Pen (FN) (21.30% of the vote) and Emmanuel Macron (24.01%) and was eliminated from the race.

Trial of misappropriation of public funds

As early as the end of January 2017, the newspaper Le Canard enchaîné reported that Fillon had employed his wife as a member of parliament during his time in parliament. Penelope Fillon received around 500,000 euros in government money in eight years without ever actually working like this. The public prosecutor opened preliminary investigations on suspicion of misappropriating public funds. On January 31, Le Canard enchaîné claimed it had been over 830,000 euros in 15 years. Two of Fillon's children were temporarily employed as parliamentary staff for a total of 84,000 euros. On the same day, investigators ransacked his representative office in the National Assembly and offices of the parliamentary administration.

At a major press conference on February 6, 2017, Fillon said that his wife's salary was perfectly reasonable ( parfaitement justifié ); he would stick to his candidacy. Nevertheless, he said C'était une erhur et je présente mes excuses aux Français ( something like : "It was a mistake and I apologize to the French"). Fillon said his wife kept the calendar, done the mail and represented him at clubs. His son Charles dealt with legal issues and the daughter Marie collected material for a book. According to the daily newspaper Le Parisien , Penelope Fillon had a full-time position at the magazine Revue des deux mondes in 2012 and 2013 in addition to her husband's parliamentary assistant . This belongs to the businessman Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, a friend of Fillon. On February 24, 2017, the finance prosecutor in Paris announced that the case had been handed over to an examining magistrate.

On February 24, 2020, the trial for misappropriation of public funds began; between 1998 and 2002 and between 2012 and 2013 he only employed his wife in his parliamentary office on a pretext. On March 10, 2020, the Paris prosecutor Aurélien Létocart demanded a total of five years in prison for François Fillon for embezzling public funds. For Penelope Fillon, he pleaded for a three-year suspended sentence. The verdict was announced on June 29, 2020: 5 years imprisonment, 3 of which were suspended, plus a fine of 375,000 euros. Furthermore, he is not allowed to run for political office for 10 years. Fillon announced that he would appeal.

Private

Fillon has been married to Penelope Kathryn Clarke from Wales since June 28, 1980 . They met in school in the 1970s. The marriage resulted in five children.

In his private life, he is involved in motorsport and is a member of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest , which organizes the 24-hour Le Mans race . In August 2017, Fillon became a partner at Tikehau Capital, a French asset management group.

Electoral mandates

At the local level

• 1981–2001: Member of the municipal council of Sablé-sur-Sarthe; Deputy Mayor there in economic affairs
• 1983–2001: Mayor of Sablé-sur-Sarthe
• 1981–1998: Member of the General Council for the Sablé-sur-Sarthe district
• 1985–1992: Deputy Chairman of the General Council, responsible for economic issues
• 1992–1998: Chairman of the Sarthe General Council
• 1998–2007: Member of the Regional Council of the Pays de la Loire region
• 1998–2004: Chairman of the Regional Council of the Pays de la Loire region
• Since 2001: Member of the municipality of Solesmes (Sarthe)
• Since 2001: Chairman of the Sablé-sur-Sarthe District Association of Municipalities

For the National Assembly and the Senate

• since 2012: Member of the National Assembly for the 2nd constituency of Paris
• 1986–1993, 1997–2002 and 2007: Member of the National Assembly for the 4th constituency of the Sarthe département as a member of the RPR and the UMP; In 1993, 2002 and 2007, shortly after the election, resigned from office because of joining the government.
• 1986–1988 Chairman of the Defense Committee of the National Assembly.
• Chairman of the parliamentary group on friendly relations between France and Thailand .
• 2004 and 2005–2007: Member of the French Senate for the Sarthe department; resignation from office due to joining the government.

Government career

• 1993–1995: Minister for Higher Education and Research ( Balladur Cabinet )
• 1995–1997: Minister for Information Technology and Postal Services, later Minister Delegate for Postal Services, Telecommunications and Space ( Cabinet Juppé I and II )
• 2002–2004: Minister for Social Affairs, Labor and Solidarity ( Cabinet Raffarin I and II )
• 2004–2005: Minister for Education, Higher Education and Research (Cabinet, Cabinet Raffarin III )
• 2007–2012: Prime Minister , nominated and appointed by President Sarkozy ( Fillon Cabinet I , II and III )

Web links

Commons : François Fillon  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• François Fillon's blog (French)
• Biography on the website of the French Prime Minister

Individual evidence

1. ↑ www.stcharles-stecroix.org
2. ^ Barber Christophe: François Fillon: Secrets de jeunesse. L'Express , November 15, 2007, accessed November 28, 2016 (French). 
3. ^ French Ministre des Affaires sociales, du Travail et de la Solidarité
4. ↑ full text
5. ↑ lemonde.fr , M. Fillon: "De Chirac on ne se souviendra de rien, sauf de mes réformes"
6. ^ France: Fillon reappointed Prime Minister , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . November 14, 2010. 
7. ^ French government: Fillon is old and new prime minister , stern.de. November 14, 2010. 
8. ^ French government: Sarkozy calls Fillon back into office , Spiegel Online . November 14, 2010. 
9. ^ Sueddeutsche.de February 9, 2011: Report on the allegations against Fillon
10. ^ Fillon a transmis la démission de son gouvernement. TF1 news, May 10, 2012, accessed May 15, 2012 (French). 
11. ↑ apart from the appointment one day after Sarkozy's inauguration.
12. ^ François Fillon president? “Ce doit être pour fêter mon anniversaire”. Le Point, April 3, 2010; archived from the original on September 5, 2010 ; Retrieved September 21, 2011 (French). 
13. ↑ spiegel.de / Stefan Simons November 20, 2012: UMP in crisis: France's conservatives choose the split .
14. ^ French farce: Copé does not give up the chairmanship of the UMP at handelsblatt.com, November 22, 2012 (accessed November 22, 2012).
15. ↑ La list des parlementaires ayant rallié le groupe Rassemblement-UMP. Le Monde .fr, September 27, 2012, accessed on September 28, 2012 (French). 
16. ^ Samuel Laurent, Jonathan Parienté: UMP - l'accord entre Fillon et Copé décrypté. Le Monde .fr, December 18, 2012, accessed December 18, 2012 (French). 
17. ↑ Matthieu Deprieck: L'UMP est maintenant aux mains du trio Juppé Fillon Raffarin. L'Éxpress (online), September 10, 2012, accessed on June 28, 2014 (French). 
18. ↑ Dominique De Montvalon: SONDAGE JDD - Juppé et Valls en pôle positions. Le Journal du Dimanche , August 30, 2015, accessed September 4, 2015 (French).  
19. ^ Pour sa campagne, François Fillon reprend un slogan d'Arnaud Montebourg . In: LCI . ( lci.fr [accessed November 21, 2016]).
20. ↑ lefigaro.fr: Fillon a demandé de "taper" on Sarkozy (Hollande) . In: lefigaro.fr . ( lefigaro.fr [accessed November 21, 2016]).
21. ↑ https://resultats.primaire2016.org ( Memento of the original dated November 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
22. ↑ Results of the primaire de la droite: Fillon largement en tête du premier tour. In: Le Monde (online). November 20, 2016, accessed November 27, 2016 (French). 
23. ^ Ex-Prime Minister Fillon becomes Conservative candidate. In: Spiegel online. November 27, 2016, accessed November 27, 2016 . 
24. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from November 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Les résultats ( Memento des Originals from November 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
25. ↑ Martina Meister: Conservative racing driver, in: Welt am Sonntag, April 23, 2017, p. 7.
26. ↑ Maxime Vaudano, Adrien Sénécat: Les ambiguités du program de Francois Fillon, vainqueur de la primaire à droite. In: Le Monde (online). November 27, 2016, accessed November 27, 2016 (French). 
27. ↑ Marc Semo: Russie, Etats-Unis, Syrie… qu'est-ce qui différencie Fillon et Juppé? In: lemonde.fr. November 24, 2016, accessed November 27, 2016 (French). 
28. ^ Christian Wernicke Paris: Paris: Attention, the Teutons . In: sueddeutsche.de . ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed December 1, 2016]).
29. ↑ spiegel.de
30. ↑ zeit.de / Georg Blume : candidate against judge. - Three judges summoned the presidential candidate François Fillon. He smells "political murder". Many of his supporters turn away from him.
31. ↑ Bruno Le Maire leaves the election campaign team of presidential candidate Fillon. ZEIT online, March 1, 2017, accessed on March 3, 2017 . 
32. ^ France election: New blow for Fillon as spokesman quits. BBC News, March 3, 2017, accessed March 3, 2017 . 
33. ↑ zeit.de: Fillon's spokesman leaves election campaign team
34. ↑ Les centristes de l'UDI retirent leur soutien à François Fillon . Le Monde, March 3, 2017, accessed March 3, 2017 (French). 
35. ↑ President: Fillon maintient sa candidature, Juppé va sortir du silence. In: Le Monde (online). March 5, 2017, accessed March 16, 2017 (French). 
36. ↑ Pierrick Baudais: Presidential. Le double renoncement d'Alain Juppé. In: Ouest France (online). March 6, 2017, accessed March 16, 2017 (French). 
37. ↑ Le comité politique des Républicains renouvelle “à l'unanimité son soutien” à Fillon. In: Le Figaro (online). March 6, 2017, accessed March 16, 2017 (French). 
38. ^ Lemonde.fr: François Fillon, les raisons de la défaite
39. ↑ FAZ.net January 31, 2017 / Michaela Wiegel : Fillon paid his wife and children almost one million euros.
40. ↑ lefigaro.fr: Fillon: “Rien ne me fera changer d'avis, je suis candidat à l'élection présidentielle”.
41. ↑ Fillon starts Operation Survival. Spiegel online from February 7, 2017.
42. ↑ FAZ.net, February 7, 2017: New allegations against François Fillon.
43. ↑ spiegel.de: Investigations against Fillon expanded.
44. ↑ Michaela Wiegel: Is your own wife bogus employed? , Rudolf Balmer: Ex-Prime Minister in court
45. ^ Michaela Wiegel: Five years imprisonment demanded for François Fillon
46. ^ Michaela Wiegel: Five years imprisonment demanded for François Fillon
47. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: France's ex-prime minister Fillon sentenced to prison term - DER SPIEGEL - politics. Retrieved June 29, 2020 . 
48. ↑ planet.fr April 21, 2015: François et Penelope Fillon: cinq choses que vous ne savez (peut-être) pas sur eux . Accessed November 26, 2016
49. ↑ Fillon joins mutual funds
50. ↑ Press release  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (French, PDF)