Former prime minister Alain Juppe ruled himself out on Monday, March 6 as an alternative rightwing candidate for his party colleague Francois Fillon whose campaign has been thrown into chaos by a fake job scandal, AFP reports.

At a press conference in his hometown of Bordeaux, Juppe said that the election was being held in "confused" conditions but "I confirm for a final time that I will not be a candidate to be president of the republic."

He also criticised Fillon, whose defiance of the justice system and criticism of the media had "led him into a dead-end."