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.
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The results were a relief for France’s two main parties, the governing Socialist Party (PS), which won five regions, and the centre-right Les Republicains, which won seven regions.
“Thank you and bravo for freeing yourselves from indecent (voting) orders, from smear campaigns decided in the golden palaces of the Republic and slavishly executed by those who live in this system and bloom on the Frenches’ backs”, said Marine Le Pen, stressing that her party will still be the first opposition party in the regional bodies.
Le Pen and Marion Marechal-Le Pen, her niece, established big leads in the Nord Pas de Calais Picardie and Provence Alpes Cote d’Azur regions, respectively.
The party responded by withdrawing its candidates in those regions and calling on its supporters to vote for the Republicans, who won all three.
Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen spun a positive spin on her defeat, claiming that nothing could stop her party’s momentum as it won a historically high number of votes (6.6 million).
CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU/EPA A supporter reacts after National Front’s Marion Marechal Le Pen (not pictured) loses the second round of 2015 French regional election at the party headquarters in Marseille, France, on Sunday.
However, in the absolute silence observed by French president Francois Hollande this week, prime minister Manuel Valls, emerged as the victor because he was the one who took a stand and evoked the spectre of “civil war” in the case of a victory by the Front National. Le Pen lost by a landslide in the second round of voting, with 82% of the vote going to Chirac.
The National Front has racked up political victories in local elections in recent years, but winning control of any region would have been an unprecedented boost for the party ahead of presidential elections in 18 months. If Europe continues to experience an influx of refugees and even future terror attacks the message of the National Front, which French voters still seem largely inclined to reject, seems likely to become more well-received not unlike the nationalist paranoia of politicians of Donald Trump seems to be hitting the right note with many voters here in the United States.
The turnout in both regions was more than 61 percent, up significantly from the first round, the poll showed.
However, yesterday’s results were no real victory for either party, shaken by the far-right’s growing appeal to disillusioned voters.
Ms. Le Pen made her presidential ambitions for 2017 clear: “This distinction will be what is fundamentally at stake in the huge political decision of the presidential elections”.
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.
Her party did well in the first round of the regionals when about 50% voted; it did less well in the second round when 59% of the electorate went to the polls, at least some of whom voted tactically.
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Meanwhile, the right has gradually adopted common far-right topics, like immigration, security, and national identity, in a bid to attract the far-right vote. Compared to regional elections held five years ago, the Socialists saw their support plummet by 16 percent this time around.
