49-507: François Charles Armand Fillon ( French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa ʃaʁl aʁmɑ̃ fijɔ̃] ; born 4 March 1954) is a French retired politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 2007 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy . He was the nominee of The Republicans (previously known as the Union for a Popular Movement ), the country's largest centre-right political party, for the 2017 presidential election in which he ranked third in
98-512: A master of Advanced Studies ( diplôme d'études approfondies ) in public law from Paris Descartes University . The day after Nicolas Sarkozy became president he appointed Fillon as Prime Minister of France, charging him with the task of forming a new cabinet, which was announced on 18 May 2007. By appointing as Secretary of State André Santini , who had been indicted in the Fondation Hamon affair on charges of corruption, Fillon made
147-614: A modern art museum on île Saint-Germain at Issy-les-Moulineaux , later abandoned. The project was initiated by Jean Hamon , who had made his fortune in property development, and his gift to the Conseil général of Hauts-de-Seine of nearly 200 paintings and sculptures with a total value of 7.5 million Euros, stored at Hamon's castle at Bullion ( Yvelines ). That Conseil général was then presided over by Charles Pasqua . A mixed syndicate, with Charles Pasqua and André Santini ( UDF deputy mayor of Issy-les-Moulineaux ) as co-presidents,
196-428: A monthly salary of €5,000, amounting to a total of another €100,000. A preliminary hearing immediately opened. The public outcry around this so-called "Penelopegate" was such that doubts were voiced about François Fillon himself, who was the frontrunner for the 2017 presidential election, with an immediate sharp decline in the opinion polls. On 31 January, new reporting by Le Canard enchaîné found that Penelope Fillon
245-605: A number of other classic road rallies. Fillon's younger brother Pierre currently serves as the President of the ACO, having been elected in 2013. [REDACTED] Media related to François Fillon at Wikimedia Commons Prime Minister of France The prime minister of France (French: Premier ministre français ), officially the prime minister of the French Republic ( Premier ministre de la République française ),
294-463: A referendum on registration of the fiscal golden rule in the Constitution. In defending a policy of controlling the deficit, Fillon is in favour of abolishing the wealth tax, which he considers one of the causes of the debt of France. According to him, this tax discourages foreign entrepreneurs. This tax would be offset by the creation of a top slice of income tax to 50%, which would be included in
343-430: A replacement candidate. Fillon continues his candidacy, despite his promise (given on 26 January on TV) to withdraw from the race if subjected to criminal prosecution. On 23 March, Fillon said on national television that Bienvenue Place Beauvau , a book co-authored by Didier Hassoux of Le Canard enchaîné , suggested President François Hollande ran a shadow cabinet to spread rumours about his opponents. Hassoux denied this
392-518: A suspended two-year prison sentence for the embezzlement charge, down from three years suspended. The court maintained fines of €375,000 for each of them. In its 22 March 2017 issue, satirical weekly Le Canard enchaîné reported that Fillon had introduced a Lebanese billionaire to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a business forum in St. Petersburg in 2015 as part of a $ 50,000 contract for Fillon's 2F Conseil consulting firm. Having lived his whole life in
441-636: A year after Sarkozy became its president. The mixed syndicate has to pay expenses to Hamon until 2011. The foundation collapsed and its construction permit was cancelled after an appeal launched by ecologists and local residents. The affair began in May 2003 after Hamon's accountant confessed. The judge suspected him of having inflated the costs. Jean Hamon had received nearly 750,000 from public funds. Since mid-2003 several investigations into embezzlement of public funds were put in place by judge Nathalie Andreassian, particularly into politicians and civil servants of
490-542: Is appointed by the president of France , who is theoretically free to pick anyone for the post. In practice, because the National Assembly has the power to force the resignation of the government by adopting a motion of no confidence , the choice of prime minister must reflect the will of the majority in the National Assembly. In periods of cohabitation , the prime minister is only responsible to
539-436: Is more liberal than his mentor Philippe Séguin . A few months after taking office as prime minister, he declared that he was "at the head of a state that is bankrupt financially, [...] which for 15 years has been in chronic deficit, [...] that has not voted a balanced budget for 25 years." He then committed publicly to "bring the state budget to balance by the end of the five-year", and reiterated this promise in 2012 and proposed
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#1732764998660588-536: Is the head of government of the French Republic and the leader of its Council of Ministers . The prime minister is the holder of the second-highest office in France, after the president of France . The president, who appoints but cannot dismiss the prime minister, can request resignation. The Government of France , including the prime minister, can be dismissed by the National Assembly . Upon appointment,
637-701: Is the only member of the government able to introduce legislation in Parliament. Under the Third Republic , the French Constitutional Laws of 1875 titled the head of government as the "President of the Council of Ministers" ( French : Président du Conseil des Ministres ), though he was informally called "prime minister" or "premier" outside of France . The president of the council was vested with similar formal powers to those of
686-523: Is the president of Automobile Club de l'Ouest , responsible for the organization and management of the 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race. His youngest brother, Dominique [ fr ] , is a pianist and jazz musician. Fillon received a baccalauréat in 1972. He then studied at the University of Maine in Le Mans where he received a master's degree in public law in 1976. He subsequently received
735-510: The 2012 presidential election , Fillon resigned on 10 May. Following the inauguration of Hollande as president on 15 May 2012, Jean-Marc Ayrault , Mayor of Nantes , was appointed to succeed Fillon as prime minister. Aiming at building consensus within the diverging views at the UMP after Francois Hollande's victory in the French presidential elections in 2012, Fillon declared his candidacy to become
784-523: The 2012 presidential elections . Running on a platform described as conservative, he won the 2016 The Republicans presidential primary , defeating Alain Juppé . Following his victory in the primary, opinion polls showed Fillon as the frontrunner for the 2017 presidential election . But in March 2017, he was formally charged in an embezzlement investigation in a case that became known as " Penelopegate " due to
833-482: The 2017 presidential election . As of November 2016, Fillon was seen as the frontrunner for the presidency against the Socialist candidate Benoît Hamon , Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen . However, revelations of series of political scandals at the end of January shattered his presidential bid, with polls rapidly showing him behind both Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron and out of the runoff. Fillon's visits on
882-564: The Fifth Republic . It was at this point that the post was formally named "Prime Minister" and took its present form. The 1958 Constitution includes several provisions intended to strengthen the prime minister's position, for instance by restricting the legislature's power to censure the government. As a result, a prime minister has only been censured once during the existence of the Fifth Republic, in 1962 when Georges Pompidou
931-672: The OCLCIFF (Central office for the fight against corruption and financial and fiscal crime) executed a search at the Manoir de Beaucé where François and Penelope Fillon reside in the Sarthe department. This followed a search by the same agency on 2 March 2017 at the Fillons' Paris residence in the 7th arrondissement. On 6 March 2017, the inner circle of Fillon's party had a crisis meeting. Beforehand, Alain Juppé had definitively excluded becoming
980-464: The prime minister of the United Kingdom . In practice, this proved insufficient to command the confidence of France's multi-party parliament. Most notably, the legislature had the power to force the entire cabinet out of office by a vote of censure . As a result, cabinets were often toppled twice a year, and there were long stretches where France was left with only a caretaker government. Under
1029-439: The 2012 presidential election, he proposed that each job seeker should be offered vocational training and be forced to accept the employment offered to them after training. Fillon' stances on domestic and social issues are mostly perceived as conservative. As member of the National Assembly, he voted against the equalisation of the age of consent for homosexual relations in 1982, against civil solidarity pacts in 1999, and against
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#17327649986601078-474: The Automobile Club de l'Ouest), later married Penelope Fillon's younger sister, Jane. In January 2017, Le Canard enchaîné published an article in which Penelope Fillon was accused of alleged fictitious employment, as her husband's " assistante parlementaire " for a total salary of €500,000 over eight years on the one hand, and as a "literary adviser" of Revue des deux Mondes on the other, with
1127-450: The CSG. As a presidential candidate, Fillon aims to reduce the public sector and cut 500,000 civil-service jobs. Fillon has been compared to Margaret Thatcher due to his ambition to reduce the size of the state. He says in 2016 that he wants the state healthcare program ( securité sociale ) to work better with fewer payments. Fillon is in favour of increasing the retirement age to 65. During
1176-554: The Le Mans area and having represented it politically, Fillon is an enthusiastic supporter of the city's 24-hour sportscar race, which he has attended nearly every year since he was a small child. He is a member of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest , which stages the event, and is on the race's organisation committee. He has also competed in the Le Mans Legend historic sportscar races on the full 24-hour circuit and in
1225-583: The President of the UMP party. On the day of the vote, both candidates (Fillon and Jean-François Copé ) claimed victory and accused the other of cheating. This led to a major political crisis within the party with votes being recounted twice and Copé finally being declared winner. Fillon threatened to split from UMP unless new elections were organised. He formed a new parliamentary faction, the Rassemblement-UMP group . In December 2012, Copé agreed to organising elections in 2013, thus putting an end to
1274-520: The actions of the Government". Additionally, Article 20 stipulates that the government "shall determine and conduct the policy of the Nation", and it includes domestic issues, while the president concentrates on formulating directions on national defense and foreign policy while arbitrating the efficient service of all governmental authorities in France. Other members of the government are appointed by
1323-578: The banks of the River Sarthe 4 km east of the monastery village of Solesmes , near Sablé-sur-Sarthe , and about halfway between Le Mans and Angers . They had lived in various other properties, always in the Sarthe , throughout their marriage, before buying Beaucé in 1993. Fillon has a reputation as an Anglophile . His wife Penelope Kathryn Fillon, née Clarke, was born in Llanover in Wales,
1372-412: The circumstances, the president of the council was usually a fairly weak figure whose strength was more dependent on charisma than formal powers. Often, he was little more than primus inter pares , and was more the cabinet's chairman than its leader. After several unsuccessful attempts to strengthen the role in the first half of the twentieth century, a semi-presidential system was introduced under
1421-471: The crisis. Fillon entered the 2016 The Republicans presidential primary , held on 20 November 2016, and seemed a likely third as late as a week before the vote. In early counting, Fillon emerged as the clear frontrunner, with Alain Juppé in second place. Third place Sarkozy conceded, bringing his support to Fillon, and Fillon and Juppé went into the runoff on 27 November 2016. Juppé conceded to Fillon, pledging his support for him as The Republicans' nominee in
1470-700: The daughter of a solicitor. They met while she was teaching English during her gap year in Le Mans , and they were married in the bride's family church in June 1980. François Fillon has spoken at a wide variety of universities in Britain, notably King's College London and the London School of Economics . On 1 September 2017, Fillon became a partner at asset manager Tikehau Capital. Fillon's younger brother, Pierre, an ophthalmic specialist (and now President of
1519-421: The first break since 1992 with the so-called " Balladur jurisprudence ", according to which an indicted governmental personality should resign until the case is closed. On 13 November 2010, Fillon resigned, paving the way for a cabinet reshuffle. One day later Sarkozy reappointed Fillon as prime minister, allowing Fillon to formally name a new cabinet. Following the defeat of Nicolas Sarkozy to François Hollande in
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1568-631: The first round of voting. Fillon became Jean-Pierre Raffarin 's Minister of Labour in 2002 and undertook controversial reforms of the 35-hour working week law and of the French retirement system. In 2004, as Minister of National Education he proposed the much debated Fillon law on Education . In 2005, Fillon was elected senator for the Sarthe department. His role as a political advisor in Nicolas Sarkozy 's successful race for president led to his becoming prime minister in 2007. Fillon resigned upon Sarkozy's defeat by François Hollande in
1617-493: The ground attracted protesters who further destabilised his campaign. The news provoked consternation in Germany where Fillon was seen as a serious and trusted candidate. On 23 April 2017, he secured 20.0% of the votes at the first round of the French presidential election, arriving third, and therefore failing to enter the runoff. Fillon has been described as economically liberal and fiscally conservative. For many observers, he
1666-493: The house, some bills that might prove too controversial to pass through the normal assembly rules are able to be passed this way. The prime minister may also submit a bill that has not been yet signed into law to the Constitutional Council (article 61). Before dissolving the assembly, the president must consult the prime minister and the presidents of both houses of Parliament (article 12). The prime minister
1715-448: The involvement of his wife . In April, he finally came third in the first round with 20%, and was therefore excluded from the runoff between the top two finishers. In 2020, Fillon was convicted of fraud and misuse of funds, and sentenced to five years in prison (three of them suspended). He has appealed against the sentence. In May 2022, the sentence was shortened to four years in prison (three of them suspended). In December 2021, Fillon
1764-569: The legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2013. However, he says he will not ban the same-sex marriage law if elected president. He opposes adoption by same-sex couples. Fillon has stated that he is personally opposed to abortion but would not vote to ban it. Fillon blamed the 2017 social unrest in French Guiana on President Hollande's policies, which he said had failed. Fillon is an advocate of cracking down on Salafism and Muslim Brotherhood -linked groups and has stridently warned against
1813-413: The majority in the National Assembly, a prime minister does not have to ask for a vote of confidence after a government formation, having been legitimized by the president's assignment and approval of the government. Prior to the 1958 Constitution, the government was required to pass a motion of confidence upon entering office. According to article 21 of the Constitution, the prime minister "shall direct
1862-451: The parliament. One example of cohabitation includes President François Mitterrand 's appointment of Jacques Chirac as prime minister after the legislative election of 1986 . While Mitterrand's Socialist Party was the largest party in the National Assembly, it did not have an absolute majority. The RPR had an alliance with the Union for French Democracy , which gave them a majority. While prime ministers are usually chosen from amongst
1911-584: The president "on the recommendation of the prime minister". In practice, the prime minister acts in harmony with the president, except when there is a cohabitation . During cohabitation, according to the Constitutional Council, "the center of gravity of power shifts from the Elysée to Matignon", with the president losing his status as head of the executive. In such cases, the prime minister traditionally exercises primacy in domestic affairs, while
1960-419: The president limits their action to defense and, to a lesser degree, to foreign affairs. The prime minister can "engage the responsibility" of the government before the National Assembly. This process consists of placing a bill before the assembly, and either the assembly overthrows the government, or the bill is passed automatically (article 49). In addition to ensuring that the government still has support in
2009-476: The prime minister proposes a list of ministers to the president. Decrees and decisions signed by the prime minister, like almost all executive decisions, are subject to the oversight of the administrative court system. Some decrees are taken after advice from the Council of State (French: Conseil d'État ), over which the prime minister is entitled to preside. Ministers defend the programmes of their ministries to
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2058-440: The prime minister, who makes budgetary choices. The extent to which those decisions lie with the prime minister or president often depends upon whether they are of the same political party. If so, the president may serve as both the head of state and de facto head of government, while the prime minister serves as his deputy. The current prime minister is Michel Barnier , who was appointed on 5 September 2024. The prime minister
2107-421: The ranks of the National Assembly, on rare occasions the president has selected a non-officeholder because of experience in bureaucracy or foreign service, or success in business management—former Minister of Foreign Affairs Dominique de Villepin , for example, served as prime minister from 2005 to 2007 without having held elected office. Although the president's choice of prime minister must be in accordance with
2156-512: The threat of " Islamic totalitarianism ". He has called for dialogue with Syria under Bashar al-Assad and with the Russian Federation, under Vladimir Putin . Putin has been described as a friend of Fillon, although Fillon himself rejects that description. Fillon lives with his wife, Penelope , and five children, Marie, Charles, Antoine, Édouard and Arnaud, in the 12th-century Manoir de Beaucé, set in 20 acres (8 ha ) of woodland on
2205-439: Was actually paid €300,000 more than previously reported, for a total sum of €831,440 for 15 years of her parliamentary assistant work. It also reported that Fillon had paid two of his children €84,000 for little apparent actual work. On 6 February 2017 Fillon held a press conference. He said "It was a mistake and I apologize to the French [people]" but also said that the salary of his wife was "perfectly justified". On 3 March 2017,
2254-576: Was created in 2000. In 2003, a judge in Versailles was surprised to see the département invest (without control over the funds) 800,000 Euros for the storage and conservation of the works. Charles Pasqua and André Santini, as well as many other civil servants, were indicted in the case in mid-2003. Also, Nicolas Sarkozy could also be involved in the affair, according to Libération , since the Conseil général continued to make such payments to Hamon for
2303-698: Was named as a member of the Board of Directors of SIBUR Holding, the largest integrated petrochemical company in Russia. He resigned from this position in February 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine . Fillon was born on 4 March 1954 in Le Mans , Sarthe, France. His father, Michel, is a civil law notary , while his mother, Anne Soulet Fillon [ fr ] , is a history professor of Basque descent. His younger brother, Pierre [ fr ]
2352-486: Was the case. On 24 February 2020, Fillon became one of the few prime ministers to ever go on trial. On 29 June 2020, he was convicted of fraud and misuse of funds, and sentenced to five years in prison - three of them suspended. Their lawyers appealed against the sentence and he remains free pending the outcome of the appeal. On 9 May 2022, a French appeals court reduced Fillon's prison sentence shortened to four years with three years suspended. His wife Penelope would be given
2401-478: Was toppled over opposition objections to President Charles de Gaulle 's effort to have the president popularly elected. At the ensuing 1962 French legislative election , de Gaulle's coalition won an increased majority, and Pompidou was reappointed prime minister. Fondation Hamon affair The Fondation Hamon affair was a French political scandal surrounding the Fondation Hamon, a project to build
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