In the first round of the French regional elections the Front National made very large gains and is likely to secure control of some regions after the second round of voting. The Front National finished top in six of 13 regions on Sunday. The NF Leader Marine Le PenLe and her 25-year-old niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen broke the symbolic 40-percent mark in their respective regions of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie and Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur. But the FN also scored big in the eastern region including Alsace on the border of Germany and Belgium.
The Socialists of President Francois Hollande have already begun withdrawing candidates, but former president Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of the centre-right Republicans, ruled out any tactical alliance.
The regional election results
A map showing the distribution of votes
