The far-right has been steadily gaining traction in France over the past few years as Le Pen has continued its strident nationalism, while purging some of the party’s least savory elements.
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The National Front’s anti-immigrant stance has resonated in a country shaken by the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, in which extremists killed 130 people and wounded more than 300 others.
FN leader Marine Le Pen and her 25-year-old niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen broke the symbolic 40 percent mark in their respective regions, shattering records for the party as they tapped into voter anger over a stagnant economy and security fears linked to Europe’s refugee crisis. “Even if the National Front scored last weekend, it will be completely isolated and incapable to ally with no one else in the final round”, Mariani, who is also a former French transport minister, said, adding that Le Pen’s party at the most might win in two regions out of the total 16.
She is the top candidate in Calais, where thousands of migrants live in makeshift camps in hopes of reaching Britain.
The National Front won 27.73% of the vote, the Republicans and its allies 26.65% and the Socialists 23.12%, according to official first round polling figures.
Following Sunday’s historic score of the Front National, the Socialist Party has made a decision to withdraw his lists in three regions where it came third while rightist “Les Republicans” party’s leader and former President of France Nicolas Sarkozy said he opposed a “Republican front” with the PS against the FN.
Ms Le Pen was careful not to claim victory on Monday: “We’re not home and dry, especially since the election is being run in an unfair way”, she told French radio RTL.
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Marine Le Pen, welcomed the “magnificent result”, saying it proved the FN was “without contest the first party of France”.
