French far-right flops at regional election run-off

{Estimates show the National Front has failed to win a single region despite big gains in the first round. }

Estimates showed France’s far-right National Front (FN) failed to win a single region in the second round of elections, despite record results in the first.

If preliminary results are confirmed, the loss would be a major disappointment for National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who had hoped to use regional election wins as a springboard for presidential and general elections in 2017.

Despite the predicted defeat, Le Pen gave a defiant speech to supporters after polls closed on Sunday, saying “nothing can stop us now”.

Tactical voting by Socialist voters appeared to keep the National Front at bay in its main target regions.

Out of 13 contested regions, the ruling Socialists of President Francois Hollande looked to have won at least five, while former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right alliance was leading with seven. Nationalists were expected to win in Corsica.

Still, Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned despite the expected result “the danger of the far-right has not been removed, far from it”.

After first round election results – the best in the National Front’s history – the Socialist Party withdrew its candidates in the north where Le Pen was the main candidate, and in the southeast where her niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen was running, urging supporters to vote for Sarkozy to keep FN out of power.

Hollande languished behind the FN and the Republicans in the first round of the vote, which was held under a state of emergency just three weeks after 130 people were killed in the ISIL-claimed attacks in Paris.

SOURCE:AL JAZEERA: [French far-right flops at regional election run-off->http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/french-flops-regional-election-runoff-151213192548307.html]