France’s far-right National Front party, capitalizing on terrorist attacks last month in Paris, was dominant in the first round of weekend regional elections.
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“Rather than withdrawing, we need to confront them”, said Jean-Pierre Masseret, despite finishing a distant third in the eastern Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine region. A possible FN victory in the second round could be used as a launchpad for Le Pen’s presidential bid in 2017.
“This is a great result that we welcome with humility, seriousness and a deep sense of responsibility”, said National Front leader Marine Le Pen, according to France 24.
President Francois Hollande, who cast his vote in Tulle in central France, has seen his personal ratings surge as a result of his hardline approach since the November 13 Paris attacks.
France’s hard-right Front National party today took another step toward mainstream acceptance, winning a larger proportion of the vote than any other party in the first round of regional elections. Add to this a general unwillingness on the liberal Left to grapple with the politics of integration, and fertile ground has been sown for the kind of hatred spewed by the white fascistic Right. A deadline expires tomorrow at 6 pm to present the lists running in the second-round runoffs Sunday and tension is at a record high among those defeated by Marine Le Pen, who came in first with 27.8% of the nationwide vote with her Front National.
Le Pen has demanded a crackdown on Islamists in France. In the current atmosphere of insecurity and rising unemployment, Le Pen says she predicted numerous problems besetting the country today, as did her father, former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.
France’s National Front has once again claimed a victory, this time in regional elections. Such a scenario is certainly to happen for the Presidential race to take place in 2017.
But Le Pen’s anti-immigration stance is not the only part of her manifesto which resonates with voters.
The party were criticised over an election poster imploring voters to “Choose Your Suburb”, accompanied by a picture of a veiled woman, and an unveiled woman with the French tricolore painted on her cheeks.
Front National’s divisive anti-immigration, socially conservative, anti-Schengen platform has been pulling in new voters since the attacks, while continuing to spark criticism and allegations of xenophobia and racism.
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France’s chief rabbi, Haim Korsia, called for a “civic uprising” of voters in the second round “to breathe life into democracy…in these particularly troubled times for the nation”.
