TheCable

Alain Juppe, a leading presidential candidate in France on Friday said it would be an error to compare him to Hillary Clinton, who was widely expected to become US president but lost to Donald Trump.

“I am not Hillary Clinton and France is not America,” the man opinion pollsters’ tip to become France’s next president said.

The 71-year-old former prime minister was speaking on public radio ahead of a primary election ballot his conservative Les Republicains Party and its allies that would hold on Sunday.

The contest, involving a second run-off vote on November 27, will pick a candidate for the presidential race.

He is up against other heavyweights, including ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy and another former prime minister, Francois Fillon, second and third-placed in polls of the likely outcome of that primary.

Juppe is the pollsters tip to win in both cases, though the latest surveys suggest his lead had slipped significantly and made the result much harder to call.

Both rivals have closed the gap, with Sarkozy in second place and Fillon’s support growing fast.

A flash poll made Fillon the winner of a TV debate between primary election candidates on Thursday.