Tactical voting by Socialist voters has kept Marine Le Pen’s National Front (FN) out of power in its three main target regions in French regional elections, handing wins to the conservatives, exit polls show.
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The Socialists withdrew their candidates from the regions where Le Pen and her niece ran to throw the elections to the Republicans.
“Here we stopped the progression of the National Front”, said conservative Xavier Bertrand, who was projected to beat Le Pen in the Nord-Pas de Calais region.
Ms Le Pen’s 26-year-old niece, Marion Maréchal Le Pen, lost the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region to the LR candidate, Christian Estrosi, a close ally of Mr Sarkozy, by 45 to 55 per cent.
The National Front – traditionally an outcast in the mainstream political scene – had been boosted by the migration crisis and the Paris terror attacks.
In the lead-up to the first round, opinion polls suggested that the popularity of the anti-immigration, anti-EU FN had increased since the deadly attacks.
But three polling agencies have projected that the opposition conservatives and governing Socialists won control of France’s 13 regions. The Socialist candidate refused to pull out in a third region, in the east, where the National Front’s No. 2, Florian Philippot, scored well.
Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned that despite the result “the danger of the far-right has not been removed, far from it”.
Marine Le Pen’s defeat signaled the end of the party’s momentum in French politics, Bertrand said on France2 television.
Unofficial results suggest that the center-right Republicans of former president Nicolas Sarkozy and its allies have won seven of 13 regions.
Pollster Jean-Daniel Levy of Harris Interactive said the FN was “almost certain” to win one region, while Bruno Jeanbart of OpinionWay said it would win between “zero and five”.
Le Pen said the result would not discourage the “inexorable rise, election after election, of a national movement” behind her party. Although the party failed to sustain the gains Sunday, it captured more than 27% of the national vote and will be the only opposition party to hold seats on a number of regional councils. This will help her build support for the presidential election in 2017.
In a defiant speech to supporters after polls closed, she said “nothing can stop us now”. “There are some victories that shame the winners”.
The anti-immigration FN topped the vote in six of 13regions within the first spherical of voting on December 6, capitalising on the safety fears as nicely as France’s struggling financial system and disillusionment with mainstream events. He was squarely beaten when 82% of voters from all parties opted for Jacques Chirac to keep Le Pen bay. “I also want to thanks the voters of the Left who clearly voted to create a rampart (against the FN)”.
The FN argues that the political manoeuvring by the main two political parties shows that they are two sides of the same coin and the far-right offers the only real political alternative.
Turnout in both regions was more than 61 per cent, up significantly from the first round, the poll showed.
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Sunday’s poor results notwithstanding, the National Front’s policies have already reshaped French political life and sharpened skepticism about France’s mostly Muslim immigrants.
