Far-right makes gains in French voting

Lead shadowed by unpopularity of Hollande, high unemployment

France's far-right National Front party dealt a blow to the ruling Socialists on Sunday after several of its candidates came out on top in the first round of local elections.

The main center-right opposition Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, also touted its own "big victory", with initial estimates giving it a lead in elections shadowed by the record unpopularity of President Francois Hollande and an economic backdrop of near-zero growth and high unemployment.

According to preliminary results from the Interior Ministry, the UMP and its allies took 47 percent of the vote nationwide, while the Socialist party and its allies took 38 percent, and the FN 5 percent - far higher than its 0.9 percent result in the first round of the 2008 municipal polls.

Applauding what she said was "an exceptional vintage for the FN", Marine Le Pen - head of the anti-immigration, anti-EU party - said the polls marked the "end of the bipolarization of the political scene".

Although the FN had been expected to do well, the first round results were far better than expected.

Far-right candidates came first in several key towns and cities, putting them in the pole position for the second round on March 30.

In the former coal-mining town of Henin-Beaumont in northern France, Steeve Briois achieved an absolute majority with 50.3 percent of votes, making him the outright winner and mayor.

Under municipal election rules in France, any candidate who gets more than 50 percent is declared the winner and there is no need for a second round.

The FN hopes to claim the mayoral seat in 10 to 15 mid-sized towns in the second round. If it succeeds, it will have beaten its previous record of four mayors in 1997.

Concerns expressed

The Socialists immediately responded to the FN surge by acknowledging that some voters had registered their discontent with the current government's policies.

"Some voters expressed their concerns, and even their doubts, by abstaining or through their vote," Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said.

Turnout was dismally low at around 38 percent - a record for French municipal elections.

Ayrault called on voters to rally in the second round to block the "advance of the FN", in a mirror of the 2002 presidential elections when then-FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen reached the second round, prompting the Socialist Party to urge support for center-right candidate Jacques Chirac.

"Where the National Front is in a situation where it could win the second round, all forces have the responsibility to create the conditions to stop it from doing so," he said.

The leader of the UMP called on those who had voted for the FN to "carry over their vote" onto UMP candidates in the second round.

Jean-Francois Cope predicted a "big victory" for his party in the second round, in a sign that corruption scandals that have affected the UMP, as well as former president Nicolas Sarkozy, had little impact.

Surprise in Paris

In the French capital, the UMP was encouraged by an unexpected lead won by former Sarkozy minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who is competing against Anne Hidalgo, the daughter of Spanish immigrants, in a fierce battle that will see Paris get its first-ever female mayor.

Hidalgo had largely been tipped as the favorite, but the results instead gave Kosciusko-Morizet a handy advantage going into the second round.

The race for mayor of the French capital is the highest profile of the municipal elections, which will produce more than 36,000 new mayors in villages, towns and cities across France.

While few of these will be from the FN, the Sunday results represent a turnaround for a party that was mired in financial crisis and internal bickering in the last elections.

Marine Le Pen took over the FN leadership from her father in 2011 and set about broadening the appeal of a party many regarded as taboo in light of Jean-Marie Le Pen's repeated convictions for Holocaust denial and inciting of racial hatred.

As well as trying to "detoxify" the FN's image, she has attempted to soften its image as a single-issue party by campaigning on unemployment, cost of living and crime.

Past attempts by the FN to run local councils have often failed as a result of the eccentric personalities involved, but Le Pen has been eager to show that the party is capable of prudent governance.