BacklashFrench regional elections: No one can dismiss Le Pen as an also-ran now
Marine Le Pen probably won’t be the next president of France, but the regional elections are proving that her Front National has truly become a major player. Le Pen’s party has taken 28 percent of the vote in the first of two rounds to elect regional assemblies. The right-wing Republicans, led by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, came a close second, with a shade under 27 percent. The ruling Socialist Party trailed, with just 23 percent of the vote. There is one week to go until the decisive second round, but even if the left and right somehow manage to block their path, the FN has already struck a major blow ahead of the presidential election in 2017.
Marine LePen, shock architect of France // Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Marine Le Pen probably won’t be the next president of France, but the regional elections are proving that her Front National has truly become a major player.
Le Pen’s party has taken 28 percent of the vote in the first of two rounds to elect regional assemblies. The right-wing Republicans, led by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, came a close second, with a shade under 27 percent. The ruling Socialist Party trailed, with just 23 percent of the vote.
There is one week to go until the decisive second round, but even if the left and right somehow manage to block their path, the FN has already struck a major blow ahead of the presidential election in 2017.
It is a crushing blow for the ruling Socialists and bad news for Sarkozy and the Republicans, too.
A bad day for Hollande
The FN finished in first place in six mainland regions, including Le Pen’s own region, Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie, in the north of France. Its most spectacular performance was in its old heartland of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA), where Le Pen’s niece, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen took 41 percent of the vote and trounced arch-Sarkozyste and mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi in the process.
But these elections have hardly been about the regions at all. They became a pre-presidential plebiscite by proxy as soon as Le Pen decided to stand. Until now she has had to rely on success in European elections to provide an electoral base. Now she has the chance to run a region for just over a year in preparation for the presidential elections in April and May 2017.
Sarkozy’s re-entry into the political arena only added to the sense that this contest was one final chance to establish who is the real leader of the opposition.
Le Pen’s campaign has focused on security and the threat to the secular republic. There has been more than a hint of an I-told-you-so attitude since the attacks in Paris on 13 November.
She has also kept the Socialist administration’s economic failures at the fore and blended into the mix a subtle undercurrent of anti-abortion and anti-family planning discourse, as well as aiming to exploit opposition to same-sex marriage to win votes.
During the last regional elections, the Socialists took control of 21 out of 22 regional assemblies off the back of a tide of anti-Sarkozy feeling. François Hollande then went on to take the national presidency in 2012.
