François Fillon

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 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 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 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 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.