THERE was widespread relief among mainstream voters in France this evening, after Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front (FN) failed to score a single victory at elections to the country’s 13 regions. Her party shook France a week ago by topping voting nationally in the first round. The FN had looked especially likely to win in either the north, where Ms Le Pen (pictured) was running, or the south, where her 26-year-old niece Marion Maréchal-Le Pen was the candidate. In the end, neither could summon a majority. But they were defeated only after the left pulled out and urged its supporters to vote for centre-right candidates in a last-ditch effort to block the FN from gaining power.
Exit polls suggested that, of the two Le Pen candidates, Ms Maréchal-Le Pen pulled off the better result. She secured 45% of the vote in the south, losing to Christian Estrosi, a former centre-right minister. In the north, Ms Le Pen won 42%, a couple of points better than she managed in the first round, but not enough to defeat her centre-right opponent Xavier Bertrand, another...Continue reading
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