France’s far-right National Front party fails to capture any region in election

Despite a stunning first-round victory, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front party failed to capture any French regions in a runoff election Sunday, according to preliminary results released by the Interior Ministry.

Political analysts credited tactical voting by supporters of the governing Socialist Party, which withdrew its candidates for key regional councils, clearing the way for other candidates and preventing victories by the National Front.

With most votes counted, candidates from center-right parties including the Republicans of former President Nicolas Sarkozy were expected to win in eight of France’s 13 mainland regions, including ones where Le Pen and her niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, were candidates. The Socialists, which dominated the last regional elections in 2010, captured five Sunday.

In an address to supporters late Sunday, Marine Le Pen lashed out at the Socialist tactics, which she said “exposed the occult links of those who say they oppose each other but are really deceiving you.”

The results represent a setback for the National Front and the presidential aspirations of its leader in 2017. But analysts cautioned that it would be a mistake to discount the party, which has cemented its position in the French political mainstream with steady electoral gains since Le Pen took the helm from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in 2011.

The National Front had its strongest showing yet in the first round of the regional elections Dec. 6, taking the lead in six regions. Although the party failed to sustain the gains Sunday, it captured more than 27% of the national vote and will be the only opposition party to hold seats on a number of regional councils.

The National Front has received a lift from security and immigration fears among voters after two major terrorist attacks this year as well as the migrant crisis in Europe. But analysts said the party’s growing appeal had more to do with deep disenchantment with the French political establishment than with recent events.

“There is this feeling that we have tried both the Socialists and the conservatives, and both of them have failed,” said Jean-Yves Camus, a far-right expert at the Institute for International and Strategic Affairs in Paris.

Despite the success of the Republicans and Socialists on Sunday, there was little triumphalism among the parties’ leaders.

“The danger of the extreme right has not gone away, far from it,” Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in a televised statement. “We must prove that politics won’t carry on like before, show that we are capable, particularly on the left, to again inspire the wish to vote for [something] and not only against.”

Sarkozy said French voters had given all politicians a warning that could not be ignored.

“We must now take the time to debate fully the big questions that are agonizing the French,” he said.

Twitter: @alexzavis