The polls are open in France to decide the centre-right’s candidate for the presidency, with the winner likely to oppose the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in May.<br /><br /> Two former prime ministers are going head-to-head for the second round of the conservative primaries. <br /><br /> Opinion polls put Francois Fillon in pole position after taking his challenger Alain Juppe by surprise, surging well past him in the first round.<br /><br /> Fillon has laid out a radical economic reform plan to ‘halt the decline of France’ which include cutting half a million public sector jobs and scrapping the 35 hour working week. Measures which his rival Juppe, calls ‘brutal’ and ‘unworkable’.<br /><br /> With the surprise win from Fillon in the first round, another upset could be in store when the results come in.<br />
