Paris--France's right celebrated on Monday after a conservative alliance and the far-right National Front took top spots in weekend local polls, dealing President Francois Hollande and his Socialists a new blow ahead of the 2017 presidential election.
In a key test ahead of the presidential vote, an alliance led by former president Nicolas Sarkozy took first place with 32.5 percent of the vote, while the National Front (FN) of Marine Le Pen came second with 25.4 percent.
The Socialists trailed in third with an estimated 22 percent, the latest haemorrhage of support for the party since Hollande, who has failed to address double-digit unemployment in the eurozone's second-largest economy, took charge in 2012.
The result was a surprise, with opinion polls ahead of the vote predicting victory for Le Pen's anti-EU and anti-immigration FN that has been riding a wave of voter dissatisfaction over the stagnant economy and issues surrounding immigration.
Sarkozy described the vote as a "massive shift" back to a "reunited" right-wing.
Le Pen called the results a "very big success", with her party leading the first-round vote in 43 of 101 "departments", which have power over local issues such as schools and welfare.
"I said very clearly -- 20 percent would be a good result, 25 percent is a triumph," she told BFMTV on Monday.
But her party will struggle to find allies when voters return for run-off elections on March 29.
"There will be no local or national deal with the leaders of the FN," Sarkozy declared immediately after the initial figures were released.
Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls tried to put a positive spin on his party's results, saying it had "resisted better than expected" and calling for left-wing parties to unite ahead of the second-round run-offs.
AFP
