Turnout figures were 7 per cent higher than for the previous regional elections in 2010, with 50.4 per cent of those eligible to vote casting ballots by 5pm.
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He described the FN’s 40.45-per cent first-round turnout in his region as a time bomb.
Marine Le Pen’s far-right group had gained more votes nationally than any other party in last week’s first round – and led in three target regions.
The result, if confirmed, would be a major disappointment for Le Pen and her anti-immigration FN.
The once-powerful Socialist Party, which now controls all but one of France’s regions, came in a poor third place in the first round and pulled out of key races in hopes of keeping the National Front from gaining power. “History will show that it was here and now, in our region, that her rise was halted”, he said. The results were based on the count of between 71 percent and 100 percent of the votes in each region. Final official results are expected on Monday.
Sound familiar? British (and some American) readers will see the parallels between the UK Independence Party’s (UKIP) performance at the last General Election, and the Front National’s performance today. “We will redouble our efforts”, she said. But unlike the ruling socialist party (PS) and Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative “Les Républicains” (LR), the FN has no allies or reserve voters to bolster its score in the run-off.
“We are proud … of the results”, he tells supporters of his Republicans party.
“We now have to take the time for in-depth debates about what worries the French, who expect strong and precise answers”, he said, citing Europe, unemployment, security and identity issues.
Residents of the squalid refugee camp called “the Jungle” said Sunday that the inhospitable message had been received loud and clear.
The FN argues that the political manoeuvring by the main two political parties shows they are two sides of the same coin and the far-right offers the only real political alternative.
Many voters on the left and right appeared to have rallied together to keep the party, whose founder has been repeatedly convicted of racism and anti-Semitism, from power.
Sarkozy, leader of the Republicans party, praised the voters who turned out on Sunday but said “the warnings” of the first round must not be forgotten. Ms Le Pen thanked her voters “for rejecting intimidation, infantilisation and manipulation” by the socialist government.
(Actually, we saw something similar, though less choreographed, in 2002 when Jean-Marie Le Pen finished a strong second in the first round of presidential elections only to lose by 82-18 in a runoff against center-right president Jacques Chirac).
She also celebrated the “total eradication” of the left, who dropped from 12 to five regions.
Le Pen’s supporters booed Bertrand’s remarks being shown on a big screen at party offices.
Le Pen argues that a regional win would take her closer to the French presidency, which she claims will give her the power to “control my borders, stop all migrant flows and send them back to their countries of origin”.
The National Front has racked up political victories in local elections in recent years, but winning the most seats in an entire regional council would have been a substantial success.
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Le Pen cast her ballot in the Northern city of Hennin-Beaumont on Sunday, while Socialist President François Hollande voted in a polling station in his stronghold of Tulle in central France.
