France's far-right says Fillon "great candidate" to face in presidential election

PARIS (Reuters) - Francois Fillon's wide-reaching plans to slash public spending and overhaul the French economy would "trigger chaos", a top official of the far-right National Front said, welcoming him as an opponent because of their sharp differences on that issue. Fillon on Sunday became the centre-right's nominee for next year's presidential election after winning a primary vote. He wants to slash public spending, raise the retirement age, scrap the 35-hour working week, and cut back social security. Under the leadership of Marine Le Pen, who took over from her father Jean-Marie in 2011, the National Front has switched from an economically liberal, pro-small business party to one that promises to lower the retirement age and guarantee France's generous welfare safety net. "His project is so sharply different from ours, and it is such a harsh one, he cannot get a majority of voters to back him," the National Front's Florian Philippot told Reuters. "For us, he's a great candidate (to face in the election)" he said. Opinion polls have for months forecast that the center-right candidate and Le Pen would qualify for the second round of the presidential election in May and that Le Pen would then lose. But polls, which had until just days before his victory, failed to forecast Fillon's comeback, are taken with an increasingly big pinch of salt. Fillon plans to slash public spending by 100 billion euros over five years, scrap a tax on the wealthy and push the retirement age to 65 as well as increase VAT sales tax. "It's a programme of chaos. It's impossible that this austerity cure does not trigger chaos," Philippot said in an interview late on Friday. "He's running against the tide," Philippot said of Fillon, saying voters in France and other countries wanted more protection from the state. "There's been Brexit, there's been (Donald) Trump (election in the United States) ... Fillon sounds like someone from 30 years ago." The more moderate centre-right hopeful Alain Juppe had been for months the favourite to win the conservative ticket. While Juppe's economic platform was slightly milder than Fillon's, his praise for France's diversity was an easier target for the anti-immigration National Front. Fillon's opposition to multi-culturalism and his social conservatism could make him a more difficult opponent for the National Front. Philippot said Fillon, who was prime minister between 2007-2012, talked tough on migration but would not act tough once in power. The only point in Fillon's platform that Philippot welcomed was his pro-Russia stance. (Reporting by Ingrid Melander, Gerard Bon and Simon Carraud; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Andrew Bolton)