Socialist Party says resounding win is a ‘very serious warning’ and urges voters to block patriot candidates in second round.
National Front party leader Marine Le Pen at a rally in the north-east on Sunday.
France’s far-right National Front knocked out left-wing rivals and won twice as many votes as the centre-right UMP party in the first round of a local election in southern France, a sign of growing popularity for the anti-immigrant group.
National Front candidate Laurent Lopez took 40.4 per cent of the vote in the canton of Brignoles, near Toulon, late on Sunday versus 20.7 per cent for the UMP candidate and 14.6 per cent for the communist. A canton is a constituency for a department council.
The National Front’s score shows its current popularity can translate into strong ballot scores and amounts to a challenge to President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party for mayoral posts in municipal and European elections next year.
“This result is a very serious warning for the left, showing that the National Front is very strong and that we have no right to be divided,” Harlem Desir, head of the Socialist Party, told France Info radio.
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