There was a sense of panic on the political stage in France as two mainstream parties Conservatives and Socialists scrambled to prevent French regional government from falling into the hands of Front National in the second round of the voting.
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The Catholic newspaper La Croix said in its editorial: “If answers are not found to French people’s concerns, the National Front will continue its progression until the presidential election”.
France’s far-right Front National (FN) failed to transform its first-round breakthrough in the country’s regional elections intothe second round, with results showing the party beaten into third place on 13 December.
A leading figure in former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative party, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, said that if the Socialists hadn’t acted this time, “our candidates tonight… would have lost” against the Le Pens.
Permanent outsider status for the National Front – outside the “golden palaces of the Republic”, as Le Pen sneered Sunday – was the result. In contrast to the verdict of commentators after the first round – that the poll-topping National Front had delivered a humiliating setback to the third-finishing Socialists – Sunday’s results could be seen as a boost to the governing party. However, the Socialists then withdrew, allowing the anti-FN vote to consolidate behind Republican candidates, who won.
The Socialists, now in power, who have been criticized for implementing neoliberal economic policies, opted during the campaign to promote union with the center right, warning radical-left voters that they will be responsible for a far-right victory. With 28 percent of the vote, the far-right party achieved its best result ever, three percentage points better than in European elections a year ago, its previous best.
Politicians on left and right sounded the alarm, saying that French ills, from joblessness to inequality and a political system that fails to undo the problems – all considered National Front electoral fodder – must be cured, and quickly. Marine Le Pen blamed such scare tactics and a political system that tries to lock out patriots for the partys losses.
In a defiant speech to supporters after polls closed, she said “nothing can stop us now”.
“The far-right party, which was very well positioned after the first round last weekend (having won six out of 13 regions), ended up winning 0 regions”, notes the rates research team at Royal Bank of Scotland. Acting prudently, Marine Le Pen has kept distance from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen’s antisemetic views and last year expelled the 87 year-old former party chief.
For the next few months, the National Front is likely to double down on its criticism of elite France and the two mainstream parties, which it says are two sides of the same coin.
The failure of Marine Le Pen’s National Front to win a single region in the runoffs puts an end – at least for the moment – to any talk of her becoming president of France. The Socialists took a licking, even though President Francois Hollande is considered to have performed well in his response to the Paris attacks and at the climate change conference.
Yet most French remain opposed to her calls to ditch the euro and re-establish national borders, as well as her comments about the dangers of immigration.
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Front National is down but not out.
