France votes amid tensions around attacks, migration

National Front received the most votes in six of France’s 13 regions, but now faces a tougher runoff vote on Sunday.

Ahead of a second round in a week’s time, the National Front (FN) has not won any region outright, but if the result is confirmed, it would be well placed to do well in a December 13 run-off.

The election comes as France remains under tight security following last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead.

The arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants in Europe and the exploits of ISIL, which has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks, have bolstered the discourse of the National Front.

A second-round was planned for Sunday; in the interim other parties will negotiate and jostle for position.

“There is too big of a risk of victory for the National Front for us to keep our candidates in this region”, said lawmaker Bruno Le Roux, who is the Socialists’ leader in the lower house of parliament.

Marine Le Pen has now declared the National Front the country’s top party after it scored the most votes nationally, scoring nearly 28 percent of the vote.

Although a shift toward the policies of the National Front Party had been in place for several years now, the November 13th attacks hastened the process, and will continue to do so as France prepares to vote on a new president in 2017.

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

Her young niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, is running to lead the southern Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region. The leader of the right Nicolas Sarkozy refuses any withdrawal or merges lists to prevent a victory of the National Front in the second round.

Marine Le Pen says the “magnificent result” means that FN was “without contest the first party of France”.

Long the pariah of French politics, the FN has won greater respectability since Ms Le Pen took over from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, as head of the party in 2011. The party is hoping a strong performance will boost Ms Marine Le Pen’s chances for the 2017 presidential election.