French Far Right Sees Record Score in first poll since attacks

The vote may redraw the political landscape, making French politics a three-way race as it gears up for 2017 presidential elections after decades of domination by the Socialists and conservatives.

Marion Marechal-Le Pen, the granddaughter of party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and nice of Marine, scored above 40 per cent in early estimates for the vast Provence-Alpes-Cote-d’Azur region, placing her on course for a win next week.

The election was the first election since the November 13 terrorist attacks caused to kill 130 people and injure at least 350.

If we fail, Islamist totalitarianism will take power in our country.

Socialist Party leader Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, however, said that his party’s candidates could withdraw from the elections in the two regions where the National Front did best and that candidates elsewhere could join with other parties if they so choose.

Ahead of next Sunday’s run-off elections, which will determine the presidents of the regional councils in France, CRIF called on citizens to vote in order to block the Le Pen party.

Hollande has seen his personal ratings surge to a three-year high on the back of his hardline approach to security since the Paris carnage, but his party is being punished for a stubbornly high jobless total of around three million.

Le Pen said she was “not worried” by Socialist plans to withdraw but acknowledged that “things will obviously be a bit less straightforward”.

France’s far-right National Front (FN) saw record gains in the first round of regional elections.

Le Pen is campaigning to run the northern Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie, which includes the port city of Calais, a flashpoint in Europe’s migrant drama.

If traditional parties refuse to join forces against them, analysts predict the FN could take all three regions on December 13, when voters return to the polls to pick from the top two parties of the first round.

Ms Le Pen slammed the Socialist candidates’ withdrawal as “unfair” on Monday. Last spring, it got 25 percent at the first round of local elections but failed to win any departments.

Former President Nicolas Sarkozy ruled out any pact with President Francois Hollande’s Socialist party to keep the far-right out. “We have the vocation to achieve the national unity that the country requires”, she said.

Even one outright victory would be a major boost for Le Pen, who wants a base of locally elected officials to help her target power at the national level.

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said the FN’s strong performance was a “wake-up call for all democrats in Europe”.