This is a mini-2002, when the elder Le Pen made it through to the second round of the presidential elections. Back then, voters flocked to the left to route Le Pen though it's not clear that the ruling (center-right) UMP will encourage such efforts this time. It's clearly a bad sign for Sarkozy and his party though the results are hardly encouraging for either of the main two parties. There's no shortage of voter discontent in France, as in many countries. The Guardian:
Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party is in disarray after the extreme-right Front National (FN) made historic gains in the first round of local elections in France.
The FN capitalised on the surge in popularity for its new leader, Marine Le Pen, by taking 15% of the vote. The party, which until now had no local councillors, will see around 400 candidates go through to the second-round vote on 27 March. More than 30 FN candidates topped the poll in areas including parts of Nice, Marseille and the Cote d'Azur. Many will face a runoff against Socialist party figures, leaving the right-wing UMP stumped as to whom to tell its support-base to vote for. In the past, the right and left have grouped together in an unofficial republican alliance to block the far right.
But the official party line, led by the UMP leader, Jean-Francois Copé, is not to direct its supporters how to vote. Copé said the party refused any alliance with the FN, but it could not recommend a "republican front" because that meant voting for the Socialist party.
