French far right set for big gains in first poll since attacks

A day after an “historic” victory of Marine Le Pen’s Front National in the first round of regional elections in France, CRIF, the umbrella representative group of French Jewish institutions has called on voters to block the extreme right party in the second round next Sunday.

The anti-immigration party, which saw a surge in the polls after the deadly terror attacks in Paris last month, received 28% of the vote across the country, leading in six of the country’s 13 regional councils.

National Front’s success is a further blow to President Francois Hollande’s Socialists, who, in second place with 27.2 per cent of the vote, have announced it will be pulling two of its candidates out of the election in the north and southeast.

Trailing behind the National Front Party are the Republicans, led by former President Nicolas Sarkozy, and the Socialists, led by current President François Hollande.

The party has topped the vote in at least six out of 13 regions, according to pollsters’ projections.

Victory would not only put the party at the head of a regional government for the first time, but would also give Le Pen a springboard for her presidential bid in 2017.

Any party which secures 10% backing in the first round can field candidates next Sunday.

The arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants in Europe and the exploits of IS have bolstered the discourse of the National Front, which denounces Europe’s open borders, what it calls the “migratory submersion” and what it claims is the corrupting influence of Islam on French civilization.

Me when I saw that Marine Le Pen had won the first round.

Meanwhile former prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, from the Republicans urged his party’s leader to copy the PS strategy. The party was historically associated with xenophobic, racist or antisemitic stances, but since taking charge Ms Le Pen has worked to soften its image and distance herself from her father.

What Ms. Le Pen described as “lost territories” were the French city of Calais on the English Channel, which now has more than 4,000 migrants on its doorstep hoping to reach Britain, and the suburbs of major French cities, many of which have sizable Muslim populations. Many French voters are exhausted with the country’s traditional center-right and center-left forces and see the National Front as the only way to challenge the political establishment.

Marion Marechal-Le Pen did even better in the vast southeastern Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur on 41 percent.

The first surveys on runoffs say 59% of French voters back the Republicains in case of a faceoff with the FN. Additionally, the 6 million votes the National Front obtained in the regional elections are not enough to win the second round of a presidential election, which means the party still has to convince a larger number of voters if it wants to control the Elysee in 2017.