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Far-right leader Marine Le Pen votes for the regional elections in Henin-Beaumont, northern France
ANTI-FASCISTS celebrated in France today after Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) failed to win control of any regions in Sunday’s second round of regional elections.
Ms Le Pen’s far-right party, a revamp of the National Front, won about 20 per cent of votes cast, less than in either round of the last presidential elections. Other politicians welcomed its failure to make gains after it had been widely tipped to win control of a number of regional governments.
Incumbents held on in France’s 12 mainland regions, with conservative administrations keeping control of seven and the Socialist Party — which was humiliated at the last presidential election, winning less than 7 per cent of the vote — holding onto five. President Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche outfit, which did not exist at the last regional elections in 2015, also failed to break through anywhere.
From Reform UK to Trump, Orban and beyond, the far right is organised across borders and growing. Waiting for it to collapse is a fatal error – building an international, locally rooted left alternative is now an urgent necessity., argues ROGER McKENZIE
DENNIS BROE gives an update on the last week of anti-austerity protests against the Macron regime, which has seen the supposedly more right-leaning Gilets Jaunes join with the unions and the left
The desperate French president keeps running up the same political cul-de-sac. DENNIS BROE offers an explanation
