France’s far-right Front National, led by Marine Le Pen, has failed to win control of any regions in the final round of local elections despite a historically high score in the first-round when it was ranked as the most popular party in France.
The defeat of the FN was down to mass tactical voting, an increase in turnout and warnings by the left that what it called the “anti-semitic and racist” party would bring France to its knees. All this combined to stop the FN translating its huge first-round score of nearly 28 per cent into the overall control of any region.
But the Socialist Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, deliberately avoided any triumphalism and did not claim that the steady rise of the far-right party had been definitively stopped.
“Tonight there is no relief, no triumphalism, no message of victory,” he said. “The danger of the far right has not been removed — far from it — and I won’t forget the results of the first round and of past elections.” He said it was now the government’s duty to “listen more to the French people” and “to act in a stronger, faster way” particularly on employment in a country with record joblessness.
Exit polls on Sunday night showed that with less than 18 months to go until the next French presidential election, the nationalist, anti-immigration, anti-European FN still gained hundreds of regional councillors across France.