French Far-Right Fails to Win Any Region in Local Elections
France's far-right National Front (FN) failed to win a single region in elections Sunday despite record results in the first round, as voters flocked to traditional parties to keep them out of power.
The leader of the anti-immigration FN, Marine Le Pen, lost out to the right-wing opposition in the northern Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie region after the ruling Socialists pulled out of the race before the second round.
Her 26-year-old niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen was also defeated by the right-wing grouping in the southern region that includes the glitzy resorts of the Cote d'Azur, despite dominating the first round last week.
The FN had topped the vote in six of 13 regions on December 6, propelled by anger over the struggling economy and fears created by last month's jihadist attacks in Paris that left 130 dead.
But exactly a month on from those attacks, voters turned out in force -- some 58 percent took part -- and once again trounced the FN when it came down to the wire.
The ruling Socialists of President Francois Hollande and the center-right alliance of his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy looked to have won at least five regions each.
Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned that despite the result "the danger of the far-right has not been removed, far from it."
- 'Nothing can stop us' -
Despite the FN failing to grab its first-ever region, Marine Le Pen will use her party's performance as a springboard for her bid for the 2017 presidential election.
In a defiant speech to supporters after polls closed, she said "nothing can stop us now."
"In its northern and southern bastions we've eradicated the evil-doing Socialist Party," she said.
"By tripling our number of councilors, we will be the main opposition force in most of the regions of France," she added.
The FN has topped European and local polls over the past two years, bolstering Le Pen's claim that it is now "the first party of France."
But Sunday showed once again that the party struggles in the deciding round as mainstream voters gang up to keep it from power as they did in 2002 when voters switched to Jacques Chirac in a presidential run-off against Marine's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
- 'There's danger' -
Early estimates showed Le Pen scored around 42 percent to nearly 58 percent for her right-wing rival Xavier Bertrand in the economically depressed north.
Her niece scored around 45 percent to nearly 55 percent for her right-wing rival in the FN's traditional stronghold in Provence-Alpes-Cote-d'Azur.
Both women had easily won the first round.
The FN argues that the political maneuvering by the main two political parties shows they are two sides of the same coin and the far-right offers the only real political alternative.
"Frankly, I'm voting against the FN in the interests of my family," said Issa Kouyate, a 59-year-old voter of Senegalese origin, as he cast his ballot in the southern city of Marseille, where a high proportion of citizens are of immigrant background.
"There's danger," said Kouyate, describing the FN's 40-percent score in the region's first round as "a time bomb."
Some were not pleased with the tactical games of the ruling party.
"Since the Socialist Party has pulled out, I feel like they've stolen my vote," said 56-year-old Didier as he voted in the northern city of Lille.
He said he would leave his voting slip blank, though he worried about letting Le Pen win.
The FN took 28 percent of the vote nationally last Sunday, ahead of 27 percent for the Republicans and their allies.
Le Pen has reaped the rewards of her efforts to "de-demonize" the party bequeathed by her father, but it retains a stridently anti-immigrant edge. Critics accuse it of fomenting Islamophobia.
Her campaign also exploited anger over the situation in the northern port of Calais, where thousands of migrants are camping in squalid conditions.
France's regions have recently been enlarged and they have powers over areas such as transport, schooling and local business support.
Source: Agence France Presse
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