‘Shock’ was the one-word headline on the front of Monday’s Le Figaro. France was bracing itself for a swing to the right in Sunday’s regional elections, but few imagined it would be quite as dramatic. Marine Le Pen’s Front National (FN) polled nearly 30 per cent of the vote in the first round of voting, ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right Les Républicains and the ruling Socialist Party, who trailed in third with 23 per cent. As it stands, the FN are on course to take control of six regions after Sunday’s second round, although the predictions are they will triumph in no more than three due to tactical voting.
Among those who voted for the FN are a small but increasing number of Muslims who see no conflict between their religion and the party’s fierce opposition to Islamism. Marine Le Pen – a far smarter operator than her anti-Semitic father, Jean-Marie, whom she had expelled from the FN earlier this year – has been courting the Muslim vote since she became party leader in January 2011.
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