France’s far-right National Front made a breakthrough in nationwide municipal elections on Sunday that delivered a sharp rebuff to President François Hollande and his socialist government, reports The Financial Times.
The FN, led by the charismatic Marine Le Pen, won its first mayoral seat since 1995 and appeared well placed to gain other towns.
Exit polls showed the mainstream centre-right UMP party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy was also leading the Socialist incumbent in several cities in the first countrywide electoral test of Mr Hollande’s deeply unpopular two-year old presidency.
The FN won the northern town of Hénin-Beaumont outright in the first round of voting held on Sunday. It was also leading the race in Perpignan in southern France, the biggest city it had hoped to win, giving it a real chance of taking it in a run-off vote next week.
The party was also was given the lead in Avignon and the Mediterranean town of Fréjus, with an associated party leading in Beziers.
A triumphant Ms Le Pen said the trend presaged “the end of the two-party domination” of French politics. “The FN can entrench where it wishes and do so with exceptional results,” she said.
The party has risen steadily in the polls recently, benefiting from widespread disillusion with the two main parties in the face of high unemployment and sluggish growth.
The socialists were braced for a reverse and appeared to have suffered from a record low turnout of 61.5 per cent as many of its disappointed voters stayed at home.
Read more of this report from The Financial Times.