National Front blocked, but not defeated

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Front (FN), has condemned opponents for colluding to prevent it winning a single region in elections.

Turnout figures were 7 percent higher than for the previous regional elections in 2010, with 50.4 percent of those eligible to vote casting ballots by 5 p.m. (1600 GMT), three hours before polls were to close in big cities, according to the Interior Ministry.

The first words uttered by Xavier Bertrand and later by Christian Estrosi – the two centre-right candidates who defeated Marine Le Pen in the north and her niece Marion in the south – were thanks to the Socialists electorate who gave up its traditional rivalry with their party and voted in droves for them. She was ahead with 40 percent in the first round.

Despite the FN failing to grab its first region, Ms. Le Pen will still use her party’s first round breakthrough performance as a springboard for her bid for the 2017 presidential election.

This is because setting France on a new course is inevitably going to involve a vigorous challenge to much of the French political consensus, of the sort promised – but not delivered – by Sarkozy on his first outing as President.

Still, politicians on the left and right said mainstream parties must reassess their priorities.

At this time last week, the far-right National Front was riding high as “the first party of France”, as it called itself.

Le Pen seemed unfazed by the second-round results, vowing that her party’s fight for France was just beginning and that she’d be back on the ballot in the 2017 presidential elections.

The ruling Socialists of President Francois Hollande and the centre-right alliance of his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy looked to have won at least five regions each.

The mainstream parties are breathing easier, reassured by the notion that the French are still not ready to trust the National Front with the business of governing the country, or even any of its regions.

It is interesting that the voters would do that, particularly since the far right had hopes of winning based on fear stimulated by the lethal attacks in Paris last month.

The far-Right won 6.6 million votes on Sunday.

“Tonight has actually shown that a National Front presence in the second round still mobilizes a majority to get out and vote against it”, said Charles Lichfield, France analyst at political-risk consultancy Eurasia.

“I had also warned… the authorities very clearly that there will be in these immigrants terrorists, who will infiltrate… and that’s exactly what has happened”, she said.

The party’s share of the vote decreased slightly between voting rounds, from 27.73 per cent to 27.36 per cent – though their actual number of votes actually increased from 6.02 million to 6.8 million.

Mentioning national and joblessness, protection identity, he said: “We now must spend the time for in depth discussions in what worries the French, who anticipate powerful and exact responses”. The two-round system allowed the mainstream parties, the center-left Socialists and the center-right Republicans, to regroup after the first round and rally around consensus candidates. In parliamentary elections, only the top two in each constituency go to the second round, the same system used in presidential votes.