A wide open contest

摘要

"WE HAVE nothing to hide...I am afraid of nothing!" With indignant words and a clenched fist, François Fillon put on a muscular display of defiance at a campaign rally in Paris this week. Before a crowd of 15,000 flag-waving, mostly grey-haired supporters, the centre-right presidential candidate promised to make France the "greatest European power" within ten years, to put "liberty" at the heart of his campaign, and to declare a war on both poverty and "radical Islam". The event pointed to unity as well as force. Alain Juppe, the Republican primary candidate defeated by Mr Fillon, applauded his rival from the front row. But the choreography could not conceal an awkward fact: Mr Fillon's candidacy is in trouble.