Inside Story

National Front’s reversal of fortunes

The far-right party fails to make a breakthrough in second round of France’s regional elections.

Just a week earlier, the party leader, Marine Le Pen, had been celebrating a stunning victory in the first round of the vote. The National Front had emerged as the front-runner in almost half of the country’s 13 regions. But in Sunday’s second round all that vanished. The right-wing party failed to secure control of any single region. Le Pen herself did not manage to keep her seat.

Yet Le Pen was defiant, pointing out that the National Front is now the main opposition force in most regions.

So will the far-right group bounce back from this disappointment? And what happened last week to cause such a poor showing?

Presenter: Hazem Sika

Guests:

Bruno Cautres – researcher at the Centre for Political Sciences Research from Sciences Po Paris

David Lees – a researcher on French studies at University of Warwick and a specialist on French right-wing policy

Christian Makarian – editor of l’Express magazine and French foreign policy analyst