Nicolas Sarkozy has suffered a shock defeat in the race for the French presidency.
The ex-President was knocked out in the first round of the centre-right Republican party's primary election to decide their candidate for May's presidential election.
Mr Sarkozy had run on a hard-right, anti-immigration platform.
Conceding defeat, Mr Sarkozy endorsed former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, the front runner for the nomination.
He'll be up against another ex-PM, Alain Juppe, in a 'run-off' election next Sunday.
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Whoever wins that will most likely be up against Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front, in May's election.
Approval ratings for the ruling Socialist party are so low it seems next to impossible for them to make it to the presidential run-off, to be held in April.
Alain Juppe cast himself as the best candidate to stop the National Front to win the presidential election in May after he qualified on Sunday for the second round of the conservatives' nomination contest.
Rival Francois Fillon said he wanted a fresh break with the "failures" of Socialist President Francois Hollande's current mandate.