France’s far-right National Front pulled off a historic win on Sunday, topping the vote in the first round of regional elections, in a breakthrough that shakes up the country’s political landscape before 2017 presidential elections.
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According to the Interior Ministry, the first round of the French regional elections saw the anti-Europe, anti-immigration party of Marine Le Pen leading in six out of 13 regions, increasing its share of the national vote to 28 percent from 11 percent in similar elections in 2010.
In contrast, the Republicans, the faction headed by former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, won 27 percent of the vote, while President Francois Hollande’s Socialist party took 23 percent, despite a spike in Hollande’s personal approval rating following his forceful response to the terror attacks.
A second round of run-off voting is set to be held on 13 December, as the Socialists and Republicans seek to stem the rise of FN.
Speaking to The Financial Times, James Shields, professor of French politics at Aston University said “These results are a shock but they shouldn’t be a surprise”.
France’s National Front political party leader Marine Le Pen delivers a speech during the National Front political party summer university in Marseille, France, September 6, 2015.
France’s regions have recently been consolidated and given more power over areas such as schools, transport and support for local businesses.
She welcomed the preliminary projections, saying it proved her party was “without contest the first party of France”.
Socialist leaders will begin talks after the first results come in on Sunday to decide whether to withdraw from some second-round battles, while the Republicans’ strategy meeting is set for Monday.
Her father is Jean Marie Le Pen, who founded the National Front, and served as its outspoken leader for close to 40 years. The party led other parties in six of 13 regions and received more than 40 percent of the vote in two.
Her young niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, who has become something of a poster girl for the Party, appears to be on even stronger footing in her race to lead the southern Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region, including the French Riviera and part of the Alps.
The outcome also exposed fault lines within both the country’s main traditional political groupings over the right tactics to confront the National Front in the decisive second round of the regional elections next Sunday.
Under his daughter, Marine Le Pen, the party has recast itself as an anti-EU organisation and anti-Islam organisation.
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Victories for the Front National in regional election polls suggest that French voters are looking to take a hard-line on extremism and immigration.
