The far-right has been steadily gaining traction in France over the past few years as Ms Le Pen has continued its strident nationalism, while purging some of the party’s least savoury elements.
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The far-right party’s Twitter account shared comments made by party strategist Florian Philippot on Monday that were critical of the country’s handling of the terrorist attacks as well as a wave of migration.
National Front received the most votes in six of France’s 13 regions, but now faces a tougher runoff vote on Sunday.
“French people have had enough – in one election after another, they have shown their confidence in the National Front”, she said. With a presidential election in 18 months and incumbent François Hollande scoring only about 30 percent in job approval ratings, Le Pen looks more and more like a viable candidate for France’s top job. For the FN, this is the best in a series of strong performances over the past two years.
About 16% of those who voted for the FN said they had changed their voting intentions after the attacks, an exit poll suggested.
Socialist Party first secretary Jean-Christophe Cambadelis called for a “grand coalition” as he announced candidates for the Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie and Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur regions would withdraw.
Assemblies are being elected in the 13 regions of metropolitan France and in four overseas territories. Additionally, the 6 million votes the National Front obtained in the regional elections are not enough to win the second round of a presidential election, which means the party still has to convince a larger number of voters if it wants to control the Elysee in 2017.
The Socialists have already called on their candidates who came in third place in battleground seats to withdraw, to enable strategic voting to block the National Front.
Voters are choosing leadership for the country’s 13 newly-redrawn regions in elections that start Sunday and go to a second round December 13.
According to Barah Mikail, senior researcher at FRIDE worldwide think tank, based in Madrid and Brussels, and Associate Professor at Saint-Louis University, Madrid, despite the results of the FN it is not the most significant political power for numerous French voters.
But the party has been on a roll, taking first place in European and local polls over the past two years.
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Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls and the conservative-leaning national business lobby issued a public appeal this week to stop the National Front’s march toward victory.
