Francis Mouche, candidate for mayor for the far-right National Front in a town close to the southwestern French city of Perpignan, is brimming with confidence ahead of Sunday’s first round of voting in nationwide local council elections, reports The Financial Times.
With President François Hollande’s Socialist government dogged by a weak economy and the centre-right opposition mired in scandals and leadership infighting, Mr Mouche believes the FN is set for a breakthrough, not only this weekend but also in European parliamentary elections that follow at the end of May.
“French voters are rebelling,” he says as he gathers with dozens of FN candidates from the Perpignan area for a meeting with Louis Aliot, candidate for mayor of Perpignan itself and partner of Marine Le Pen, the party’s charismatic leader. “It is a bit of a subterranean revolt that will reveal itself in the municipals and even more so in the Europeans.”
Nationally, the FN is not about to overtake the Socialists or the main opposition UMP party in the local elections, which take place over two rounds of voting over the next Sundays.
The party won just 8 per cent of the nationwide vote last time around in 2008, has no incumbent mayors and is presenting candidates in only 600 municipalities out of the thousands across the country. But that is five times more than last time and some analysts think it could more than double its score. The party has been on a rising curve in the polls since Ms Le Pen won 18 per cent in the 2012 presidential election.
Read more of this report from The Financial Times.