French far-right National Front party leader Marine Le Pen.
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French President Francois Hollande has seen his personal ratings surge as a result of his hardline approach since the Paris attacks.
But his Socialist Party is languishing behind the FN and the centre-right Republicans led by former president Nicolas Sarkozy. Winning 28 per cent of the vote, Front National was first party in six of the country’s 13 regions.
The achievement for the anti-immigrant party Sunday comes shortly after last month’s Islamic State terror attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people.
After election, Le Pen assessed the result as “historic, extraordinary result” and stated that “It is a magnificent result that we will treat with humility and a profound sense of responsibility”.
First projections are expected at 1900 GMT with FN leader Marine Le Pen on course to top the poll in the economically-depressed northern region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie, which was once a bastion of the left. “She says France must take back its sovereignty lost to the European union”.
While Le Pen’s party holds sizable leads now, that may change during the second round of voting next Sunday. No other party was able to tackle the National Front on its own political turf.
The Times added that with all of the votes counted, turnout nationwide was approximately 50%, which is somewhat higher than the percentage of voters who came out during the last regional election in 2010.
The FN has been steadily gaining traction in France over the past few years as Le Pen has maintained its strident nationalism, while purging some of the party’s more extreme elements.
Some Paris residents believe Le Pen is using the national mood of fear and anger over the recent terrorist attacks to her advantage.
But the National Front’s victory in regional elections on Sunday was its largest success ever.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the co-founder and former leader of the party, celebrated the party’s ” historical” achievements in the elections Sunday by tweeting a video of Conservative party candidate Christian Estrosi wearing a skullcap and dancing with Jewish men.
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.
“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.
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Le Monde wondered: “how can a reactionary and xenophobic party, which is made, in spite of what is said, by an ideology that goes against the values of the Republic, appear as an opportunity for over one in four voters?”
