‪Big Gains for Germany’s Anti-immigration Party: Are They Really 'Right Wing'?‬

‘Election Madness’ in Germany: Merkel Losing Points, Anti-immigrant AfD Party On the Rise

6.5 Million Votes and Counting, Front National Gets Zero Seats, But Record Support

BREITBART.COM: Amongst the celebrations by the mainstream media and political establishment, you would be forgiven for thinking that the Front National crashed horrendously during today’s second round of French regional elections. Nothing could be further from the truth.

While it will sting that Marine Le Pen’s party didn’t manage to pick up any regional seats, a lot of this is down to the political establishment’s games over the past few weeks, where they’ve formed unofficial coalitions, stood down candidates for each other, and rolled out religious and community figures to effectively threaten voters with a view of what a Front National France would look like. » | Raheem Kassam | Sunday, December 13, 2015

National Front Loses in 2nd Round of French Regional Elections – Exit Polls

France’s far-right National Front party, headed by Marine Le Pen, has failed to win a single region in the second round of the country’s regional elections after a solid victory in the first round, several exit polls have shown.

French Far Right National Front 'Routed' in Key Vote

BBC: France's far-right National Front (FN) has failed to win a single region in the second round of elections, exit polls indicate.

Early results suggest the party has been beaten into third place, despite leading in six of 13 regions in the first round of votes a week ago.

The polls predict Nicolas Sarkozy's centre-right Republicans will win most seats ahead of the ruling Socialists.

Acknowledging defeat, FN leader Marine Le Pen pledged to keep fighting.

And she blamed the outcome on the mainstream parties which joined forces to keep the FN from power, telling her supporters they had been "disenfranchised in the most indecent of ways by a campaign of lies and disinformation". (+ video) » | Sunday, December 13, 2015

French Should Not Feel Guilty About Voting Front National, Says Le Pen

Head of the Front National party Marine Le Pen makes a final plea for support to voters on Thursday before the second round of regional elections. Le Pen topped the first round in Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie with over 40 percent of the votes. On the Beau-Marais estate, which was once a communist stronghold, one polling station saw Le Pen take 70% of the vote

Inside Story: What's Behind the Success of France's Far-Right Party?

French political landscape changing after big victory for the National Front in regional elections.

A Spectacular Result for Marine Le Pen and France’s Far Right

THE ECONOMIST: In the first round, the migrant crisis helps the National Front to its best ever results

THE spectacular first-round result achieved by the far-right National Front (FN) in Sunday’s regional elections in France is a sobering reminder of the dark political mood in Europe today. As the continent grapples with the aftershocks of terror in Paris and its greatest migrant influx in modern history, Marine Le Pen’s party pulled off its best-ever national score on December 6th. It secured an estimated 27-30% of the nationwide vote, beating its previous record of 25% at last year’s elections to the European Parliament, and nearly tripling its haul at the previous regional vote, in 2010.

The FN, which has never governed a region, now leads in no fewer than six out of 13 contests after the first round. Most startling of all, Ms Le Pen took an estimated 40-43% of the vote in coming top in the region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie, according to exit polls. Her niece, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, got an estimated 41-42% in the southern region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. The one region that defied the trend was Ile-de-France, around Paris, where the FN has long had difficulties; there, it trailed in third place. Voters will return to the ballot box on December 13th for a run-off.

…

Yet the FN had been upsetting France’s traditional two-party dominance, and entrenching itself as a serious player, long before these latest crises, thanks to a methodical effort by Ms Le Pen to “disinfect” the FN brand, shed its anti-Semitism and make it a respectable party ready to govern. Today, voters are turning to Ms Le Pen as much because of disillusion at unkept promises by successive governments over the economy and jobs, and because of a sense that only she stands up for ordinary folk. It is no coincidence that the two regions where the FN did best are also those with the highest rates of unemployment. The mainstream left and right will need more than just pious admonishments if they are to curb the FN. The more they urge voters to do whatever it takes to stop Ms Le Pen’s party, the better the FN seems to do. Read the whole article here » | Sunday, December 6, 2015

Far Right Gains: National Front Winning in Some Regional Elections in France

Front National Wins Opening Round in France's Regional Elections

THE GUARDIAN: Marine Le Pen’s party capitalises on Paris attacks to win 27-30% of national vote, the highest the party has ever scored in a local election

The far-right Front National has made historic gains in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, emerging as the winner in the opening round of regional elections and coming top in half of France’s regions.

The projected score is the highest vote that the anti-immigration, anti-European party has ever registered in a local election and, if the party maintains the strong lead in in next week’s second round, it could reshape the country’s political landscape.

The FN, which pushed a hardline stance on Islam, security and national identity, saw a poll boost in the wake of the Paris attacks three weeks ago in which Islamic State gunmen killed 130 at Paris bars, the Bataclan concert hall and in a suicide bombing outside the Stade de France. » | Angelique Chrisafis in Paris | Sunday, December 6, 2015

Sarkozy's UMP Party Dealt Electoral Blow

Nicolas Sarkozy’s Right-wing UMP Thrashed in French Elections
THE TELEGRAPH: Nicolas Sarkozy will seek to relaunch his embattled presidency on Monday after his Right-wing party suffered a crushing defeat in France’s regional elections, seen as a test of his popularity.

French current Socialist President of Poitou-Charentes region Segolene Royal. Photograph: The Telegraph
Mr Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) was on course last night to lose in all but one of 22 regions in mainland France. As one analyst put it, the president must reinvent “le Sarkozysme 2.0” — a new ideology to woo disillusioned voters in the run-up to 2012 presidential elections.

A coalition between the opposition Socialists and Greens, whose party is called Europe Ecologie, swept the floor in the second round vote marked by a low turnout - 51 per cent - and the lowest score for the Right in more than three decades.

As polling stations closed, exit polls gave the Socialists and Greens 54 per cent of the vote, the UMP 36 percent and the far-Right National Front just under nine per cent.

Despite pushing hard-line policies on immigration and security, the president’s allies were weakened by a strong showing for the National Front, which won no regions but was in 12 run-offs.

The UMP’s sole consolation, besides holding Alsace, was taking the Indian Ocean island of Réunion. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Sunday, March 21, 2010

leJDD.fr: La gauche en force : Comme annoncé, la gauche a largement remporté les élections régionales, dont le second tour s'est déroulé dimanche. Dans le détail, la majorité UMP-Nouveau centre a toutefois évité une déroute totale en conservant l'Alsace. Outre-mer, La Réunion a également basculé de gauche à droite. >>> Nicolas Moscovici, leJDD.fr | Dimanche 21 Mars 2010

Regionalwahlen in Frankreich: Das angekündigte Debakel des Nicolas Sarkozy
WELT ONLINE: Nicolas Sarkozys Partei UMP erleidet bei den französischen Regionalwahlen eine schwere Niederlage – Sozialisten siegen in fast allen Regionen. Schon bald trifft Sarkozy mit Premierminister Fillon zusammen: Es wird damit gerechnet, dass der Präsident zumindest mit einer kleinen Kabinettsumbildung reagiert.

Regierungschef François Fillon nannte das Ergebnis von 36 Prozent "eine Enttäuschung" für die Bürgerlichen, für die er Verantwortung übernehme. Bild: Welt Online
Die Regierungspartei von Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy hat in der zweiten Runde der Regionalwahlen die erwartete deutliche Niederlage hinnehmen müssen. Nach ersten Hochrechnungen kam die UMP im Landedurchschnitt auf lediglich 36,1 Prozent der Stimmen. Die Sozialisten (PS), die in den meisten Regionen mit Grünen und Kommunisten gemeinsame Listen gebildet hatten, kamen dagegen auf 54,3 Prozent. Die rechtsextreme Front National erreichte landesweit 8,7 Prozent.

In den 22 französischen Kern-Regionen konnte sich die UMP lediglich im traditionell rechten Elsass durchsetzen. Selbst im ebenfalls in der Regel konservativ tendierenden Korsika setzte sich die PS – wie in 19 weiteren Regionen - durch. Im Languedoc-Roussillon siegte zudem mit Gerge Frèche ein Kandidat, der nur deswegen nicht mehr offiziell als Sozialist gilt, weil die Parteiführung unter der Vorsitzenden Martine Aubry den Provinzfürsten wenige Wochen vor der Wahl wegen als antisemitisch interpretierbarer Bemerkungen von ihrer Liste gestrichen hatte.

Die Regionalwahlen sind die letzten Wahlen in Frankreich vor der nächsten Präsidentschaftswahl im Jahr 2012 und gelten deshalb als wichtiger Stimmungstest. Sarkozy wird am Montagmorgen mit Premierminister François Fillon im Élysée-Palast zusammenkommen und über Konsequenzen aus dem Wahlergebnis beraten. >>> Von Sascha Lehnartz | Sontag, 21. März 2010

France Loses Faith in Sarkozy
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: As the French go to the polls for their regional elections, many wonder whether France's love affair with Nicolas Sarkozy is well and truly over.

Sarkozy: Heralded as France's saviour when he took over from an ageing and lethargic Jacques Chirac in 2007, Mr Sarkozy has since then lost the support of a large chunk of his right-wing electorate. Photo: The Sunday Telegraph
It was just what the beleaguered party faithful wanted: a glitzy election rally with an upbeat message that their leader's huge reform programme was on track, with his ministers handling the economic crisis better than neighbours like Britain.

But days before France goes to the polls in regional elections, the man whose record and reputation are on the line was nowhere to be seen at his own party's final polling push – and his name was not directly mentioned.

Three years after President Nicholas Sarkozy swept triumphantly into the Elysee Palace to usher in what he promised was a new era of change for France, few from his camp will admit it – but he has become an electoral liability.

As his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) fought against the prospect of losing control of the last of mainland France's 22 regions in the second round vote, the man standing amid the blue balloons and wild adulation in the eastern Alsace region was the Prime Minister François Fillon. It was his final stop in a race around France to muster the votes needed for an eleventh-hour victory.

Mr Sarkozy stayed away, hoping that by doing so these elections would be considered local affairs – a vote for who controls transport, schools and development budgets.

But however he spins it, the midterm regional elections are seen as a key test on how much the French have fallen out of love with their president, and the response is likely to be a humiliating slap in the face. >>> Henry Samuel in Strasbourg | Sunday, March 21, 2010

Nicolas Sarkozy’s Prospects for a Second Term Diminish After Poll Rout
TIMES ONLINE: President Sarkozy’s prospects of a second term looked shakier yesterday after voters showed their distaste for his leadership by routing his party in the first round of elections for regional councils.

The Union for a Popular Movement, the machine that Mr Sarkozy built for his election in 2007, won 26 per cent, the lowest vote for a centre-right party in half a century.

The Socialist party won half the total vote along with its allies, notably the resurgent Greens, who took more than 12 per cent. The National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen also enjoyed a return to favour with nearly 12 per cent.

The result was seen as repudiation of the policies and style of the President, who has been wallowing in disapproval since 2008. Mr Sarkozy, 55, seems to have turned from an asset to a liability for his party, UMP insiders say.

Dissatisfaction is fuelled by antipathy for the way that he imposed a personal stamp on the presidency, casting himself as saviour of the nation and showing off his private life and his glamorous circle of friends.

Many right-wing voters who backed Mr Sarkozy in 2007 joined the 53 per cent who abstained or backed Mr Le Pen’s group on Sunday.

If the debacle is confirmed in the March 21 run-off, Mr Sarkozy could face a challenge from within the UMP for the presidency. The campaign for the election in April 2012 begins next year. >>> Charles Bremner, Paris | Tuesday, March 16, 2010

France's Socialist Party Takes on Sarkozy

Frankreich: Debakel für Nicolas Sarkozy bei Regionalwahlen
WELT ONLINE: Denkzettel für Frankreichs Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy: Sein bürgerlich-rechtes Regierungslager hat bei einem wichtigen Stimmungstest eine bittere Niederlage erlitten. In der ersten Runde der Regionalwahlen kam die konservative UMP nach ersten Prognosen nur auf 26,7 Prozent der Stimmen.

Bei den Regionalwahlen musste Frankreichs Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy eine bittere Niederlage verkraften. Bild: Welt Online
Das bürgerlich-rechte Regierungslager von Frankreichs Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy hat bei einem der wichtigsten Stimmungstests seiner Amtszeit eine bittere Niederlage erlitten. In der ersten Runde der Regionalwahlen am Sonntag kam die konservative UMP nach ersten Prognosen nur auf 26,7 Prozent der Stimmen. Sie geht damit nahezu chancenlos in die zweite Runde in einer Woche. >>> dpa/fp | Sonntag, 14. März 2010

THE TELEGRAPH: Nicolas Sarkozy votes with Carla Bruni in regional polls in show of unity: President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, put on a show of unity on Sunday following rumours of infidelities, arriving together to vote in regional elections in which the French president faces a drubbing. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Sunday, March 14, 2010

TIMESONLINE: President Sarkozy faces poll wipeout: France signalls its displeasure with its President in the first round of regional elections with Socialists taking 53.6 per cent of the vote >>> Charles Bremner, Paris | Monday, March 15, 2010

THE TELEGRAPH: Far-Right National Front performs well in French regional elections: France's far-Right National Front (FN) has re-emerged on the French political scene after enjoying a surprisingly strong showing in regional elections on Sunday. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Monday, March 15, 2010

Nicolas Sarkozy's Party Humbled by the Left in French Regional Elections
THE TELEGRAPH: French voters scarred by the economic crisis have dealt President Nicolas Sarkozy and his conservative leadership a stern blow by coming out in support of leftist candidates in regional elections.

Some voters took their worries about immigration and France's growing Muslim population to the ballot box - helping the far right National Front party upset predictions and perform strongly in first-round voting to choose regional governments.

With more than 96 per cent of votes counted, candidates from the Socialist and other leftist parties won 53.6 per cent of the overall vote, according to the Interior Ministry. Mr Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party and others on the right won 39.8 per cent.

The UMP's poor showing combined with an unusually low turnout of 47 per cent, highlights widespread discontent with the increasingly unpopular Mr Sarkozy. >>> | Monday, March 15, 2010

Sarkozy Braced for Poll Defeat as Angry French Voters Look to the Left
THE GUARDIAN: Socialists and Greens expect significant gains in regional elections as ruling party blamed for poor economic situation

The leader of the French Socialist party, Martine Aubry, speaks at a rally in Paris. Photograph: The Guardian
Nicolas Sarkozy faces an embarrassing setback at the polls over the next week as France votes in elections that look likely to hand a significant victory to the opposition Socialist party.

Although not officially on the ballot for the regional elections, whose first of two rounds will be held on Sunday, the embattled leader is expected to be punished indirectly as voters shun his rightwing UMP party in favour of leftwing and green alternatives.

With opinion polls showing the Socialists – who won control of 20 of the 22 mainland regions at the last vote in 2004 – will consolidate their "pink tide" or even increase it, commentators say the predicted defeat will reflect voters' dissatisfaction with Sarkozy.

Today, Sarkozy attempted today to distance himself from his party's impending drubbing, insisting local elections had little to do with national politics. He told Le Figaro Magazine: "The vote … is a regional vote: its consequences will therefore be regional."

However, because the significance of the poll – which elects regional presidents and assemblies – is limited, many are predicting it will be seen as an unofficial referendum on Sarkozy's leadership. The president is more than halfway through his five-year term, and this is the last major electoral exercise France will see before his mandate expires in 2012. >>> Lizzy Davies in Paris | Friday, March 12, 2010

Merkel Victory in Doubt after Left-wing Surge in Regional Elections
TIMES ONLINE: Germany’s lacklustre national election campaign was thrown open last night when left-wing parties made a surprise surge in two key regional states.

Early results from elections in Thuringia and Saarland showed that Chancellor Angela Merkel will face a much stronger opposition than expected in the general election. Political pundits had assumed that Ms Merkel would be a shoo-in on September 27 and that she was poised to rule Germany with a coalition of Christian Democrats and the small, pro-business Free Democrats.

But her Christian Democrat Party was hit hard by voters in what seemed to be a general protest against the conservative party identified with a tarnished financial and banking elite. Suddenly, the terms of this national election campaign have changed.

Ms Merkel remains the most popular politician in the country but it is now unclear with what coalition she intends to rule and how she will realise her dream of introducing a “progressive conservatism” to Germany.

“These results show that there is no support in the country for a coalition between Christian Democrats and Free Democrats,” said Frank Walter Steinmeier, leader of the centre-left Social Democrats, Ms Merkel’s main rivals. “It also shows what an unreliable indicator opinion polls have become. We will fight for outright victory on September 27.”

What seemed to be emerging last night was the prospect of a left-wing coalition governing in two important regional states. >>> Roger Boyes in Berlin | Monday, August 31, 2009