The tide of political change has reached France. François Fillon, nominated as the Republicans’ presidential candidate on Sunday, was the outsider, a radical Thatcherite candidate who did not seem to stand a chance until a couple of weeks ago.
In response to his victory, the French left-wing paper Libération published a front page with the headline “Help, Jesus is back!” (Au secours, Jesus révient!) and a rosary forming the shape of France. That is because, for many commentators, Catholics are at the centre of this transformation. Fillon is not just a Catholic, but a Catholic who knows “the flesh and blood” of conservative Catholicism, according to one observer.
