Head of Paris region Valérie Pécresse will be the presidential candidate of "Les Républicains," France's main right-wing party said on Saturday.
Pécresse won 61% of the votes in the final round of the party's primary election compared to 39% for her challenger Eric Ciotti, a hardliner MP from Nice.
It is the first time the French conservative party picks a woman to be its candidate.
"I am thinking of all French women today and I say 'thank you' to party members for their audacity," Pécresse said at a press conference after results were announced.
"The Republican right is back," she told supporters.
An experienced politician, Pécresse, 54, has been the minister for higher education, for the budget and was a government spokesperson under former
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