French Jewish leaders have criticized Francois Fillon, who is tipped to win on Sunday the second round of a Conservative party presidential primary, for his remarks that ‘’in the past Jews did not respect all the rules of the French Republic.’’

In an interview with Europe 1 radio station, Fillon, a former Prime Minister under then President Nicolas Sarkozy, spoke about the need to fight radical Islamism.

"We must fight that fundamentalism, in the same way that in the past ... we fought some forms of Catholic fundamentalism and we fought the drive by Jews to live in a community that did not respect all the rules of the French Republic," he said.

France's Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia, who spoke with Fillon about his comments, said that although Jewish groups may in the past have lived in relative isolation from wider society, that was "in no way Jewish citizens' choice, but the consequence of French society not accepting their peers at the time."

The leader of UEJF, the French Jewish students' union, Sacha Ghozlan, declared: "Those surprising comments raise questions about how Francois Fillon defines fundamentalism."

"The UEJF wonders what period Francois Fillon is referring to when he says Jews refused to abide by the rules of the French republic, if it's not at the time of Vichy (the war-time government that collaborated with Nazi Germany) when Jews were forced to hide and wear a yellow star," Ghozlan said in a statement.

Fillon, who is to face Sunday former Foreign Minuister Alain Juppe to be elected candidate of the right and center for next year presidential election, later wrote on his Facebook page that his comments had been misunderstood.

"I never meant to call into question the Jewish community's attachment to our common values and to the respect of the rules of the Republic," he said.