PARIS, Dec. 7 (UPI) — France’s far-right National Front party, capitalizing on terrorist attacks last month in Paris, was dominant in the first round of weekend regional elections.
The anti-immigration, Euroskeptic political party, which offers a hard stance on national identity and increase of the country’s Islamic population, won between 27.2 percent and 30.8 percent of the nationwide popular vote. The party led other parties in six of 13 regions and received more than 40 percent of the vote in two.
Five years ago the party received about 11 percent of the popular vote in regional elections. The weekend’s showing can be regarded as a triumph which, if it can be sustained through a second round of voting, could reshape France’s political landscape.
Party leader Marine Le Pen, 47, won more than 40 percent of the vote in her home region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie.
“It’s a magnificent result that we will welcome with humility. We are without question the first party of France. We have the vocation to achieve the national unity that the country requires,” she said.
Her niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, 25, won her region of Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur with more than 40 percent of the vote. At a recent political rally she said Muslims must “yield to the manners and our way of life” to stay in France.
The ruling Socialist Party received between 22.7 percent and 23.5 percent of the votes, cast three weeks after Islamic terrorists killed 130 people in simultaneous attacks on restaurants, a concert hall and a football stadium in Paris.
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