THE RESURGENT Front National (FN) came within two percentage points of Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP Party in France’s cantonal elections, with official results showing Marine Le Pen’s far-right party won 15 per cent of the vote.
The Socialist Party emerged as the largest party, although its vote of 25 per cent was down a point on its previous showing in 2004 and there were solid gains for smaller left-wing parties like the Greens and the Communists.
With just 14 months to go before a presidential election and opinion polls showing record numbers of voters disapproving of Mr Sarkozy, the problems for the president’s UMP were compounded by a low turnout of 45 per cent and a strong showing by the front, whose 15 per cent put it just two points behind the ruling bloc.
The ballot, to elect members of local councils that control funds for schools, roads and other services, confirmed that the FN under Ms Le Pen is succeeding in making itself more appealing to voters outside its traditional base. A number of recent opinion polls suggested that the FN leader could poll higher than Mr Sarkozy in a presidential election.
The results meant the FN qualified for a two-way run-off in about 20 per cent of some 2,000 council races, which will be filled on a second day of voting next Sunday. In about 200 of those races the FN will face a socialist candidate, and the UMP leadership appeared divided last night over how to tell its supporters to vote.
According to widely reported comments made at a meeting of UMP parliamentarians, prime minister François Fillon said the party’s supporters should “vote against the Front National”. That put him at odds with Mr Sarkozy, who earlier suggested “voting neither FN nor PS” next Sunday.
The left has called for a “Republican front” against the FN in the 394 cantons where the far-right party will contest a play-off, but UMP secretary general Jean-François Copé rejected the idea yesterday morning.
He could not, he said, support an alliance with the FN “because we don’t have the same values” but neither could he call for a front against Ms Le Pen’s party “because there is nothing in common between the right and the left either”.
A CSA poll this month credited Socialist Dominique Strauss-Kahn with 30 per cent support in the first round of a presidential election, with Ms Le Pen on 21 per cent and Mr Sarkozy 19. A more recent Ipsos survey gave Mr Strauss-Kahn 33 per cent, Ms Le Pen 19 per cent and Mr Sarkozy 18.