François Fillon

Biography

François Fillon was born in Le Mans in 1954 and studied public law at the University of Maine in Le Mans and at Paris Descartes University. Elected to the National Assembly for Sarthe in 1981, he built his career in the Gaullist Rally for the Republic and in local government, presiding over the general council of Sarthe and then the regional council of Pays de la Loire.

He served as minister of higher education and research from 1993 and held posts and telecommunications portfolios until 1997. As labour minister under Jean-Pierre Raffarin from 2002 he reformed the 35-hour week and pensions, and as education minister in 2004-2005 he put forward the Fillon law on schools. He then entered the Senate and advised Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential campaign.

Sarkozy appointed him prime minister in May 2007, and he held the post for the whole presidency, resigning after Sarkozy's defeat in 2012. Later that year he lost a disputed contest for the leadership of the Union for a Popular Movement to Jean-François Copé. In November 2016 he won the Republicans' presidential primary, beating Alain Juppé.

His campaign was then overtaken by the Fillon affair, over parliamentary pay for his wife and children for little work, and he came third in the first round of the 2017 election. In 2020 he was convicted of misuse of public funds; the sentence was reduced on appeal. He has since left politics.