The far-right Front National (FN) came top in the first round of a French parliamentary byelection on Sunday, knocking former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right party out of the running in the process.
Sophie Montel, the FN candidate, will contest the second round in Doubs, in Franche Comté, against the governing Socialist party’s Frédéric Barbier next Sunday.
The vote was the first since 17 people died in three days of terror attacks in Paris, and prime minister Manuel Valls had hoped to capitalise on the government’s rise in popularity since then.
The Union Pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), a centre-right party that came third and will not, therefore, contest the second round, must now decide whether to back the Socialists, its bitter rivals, in a pact to keep the FN out.
“It’s very serious. Marine le Pen is on the doorstep of power,” one former UMP minister was quoted by Libération as saying. Le Pen is generally seen as having had a measure of success in detoxifying her party after taking over from her father, Jean-Marie. An eventual Socialist victory is still expected.
