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 In what leader Marine Le Pen called a breakthrough for her
protectionist anti-EU party, the FN won power in the northern former
coal-mining town Henin-Beaumont in a first-round vote on Sunday, and
leads in a dozen towns before next week's runoffs.
With turnout at a record low of just over 60 percent after a string
of political scandals that have hit mainstream French politicians of
both left and right, Hollande's Socialists and their allies won just
38 percent of the national vote, behind 47 percent for opposition
conservatives, initial tallies showed.
"On reforms, we have to keep calm and show courage," Finance
Minister Pierre Moscovici told Europe 1 radio. "We are ready to take
all the measures needed for France to remain a credible country on
public finances."
Paris will send to the European Union details of planned public
spending measures on April 15 as scheduled, he added. France's
deficit is seen at 3.6 percent of output this year and Hollande aims
to get below the 3 percent target in 2015.
The FN secured around five percent of the vote — a proportionately
high amount given that it fielded candidates in just 600 towns,
meaning that only one voter in three nationally had the option of
casting their ballot for the party.
The strong FN showing reinforced expectations that it and other
anti-EU parties will do well in May's European Parliament elections.
Polls already show the FN on track to emerge as the largest French
party in the EU assembly.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault urged voters across the spectrum to
back whatever candidate was best placed to beat FN rivals in
Sunday's second round. A triumphant Le Pen said she was not
interested in voter pacts with the mainstream right even if that
could win her a greater presence on town hall councils.
"The National Front is taking root just as it wanted to do — and the
crop is pretty exceptional," she told TF1 television.
Results released during the night put the National Front ahead in
the eastern town of Forbach, in France's former industrial
heartland. In the south, the anti-EU party was in the lead in
Avignon, Perpignan and Frejus, and in second place in Marseille
behind the conservative incumbent.
"FEAR COMES TO TOWN"
If it manages to secure three more towns, the National Front would
beat its previous record in 1995, when it entered three town halls
and a fourth, two years later. Those experiences were, however,
bitter for the party as its attempts to run municipal services
showed its lack of competence in power.
"Marine Le Pen's strategy is to increase its territorial spread
whereas her father liked to go for one-off shocks," Frederic Dabi of
pollster Ifop told Reuters, refering to Jean-Marie Le Pen, who
stunned France and its international allies by ending up second in
the 2002 presidential election to Jacques Chirac.
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Since taking over the party in 2011, Marine has sought to rid the
party of its reputation for racism and anti-Semitism — an effort
that has not always reached down to its grass roots.
The FN manifesto calls for a "national preference" policy under
which social housing and other benefits would go to French nationals
first, immigration would be reduced and a referendum called on
bringing back the death penalty abolished in 1981.
"Fear comes to town," ran the front-page headline of left-leaning
Liberation. "Rejection", said the conservative Le Figaro alongside a
photo of Hollande.
There was some solace for the Socialists as their candidate for
Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, looked to be on course to beat her
conservative rival Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who nonetheless
scored better than expected in the French capital.
The elections in thousands of constituencies across France were the
first nationwide voter test for Hollande, who came to power in May
2012 and has seen his popularity slump to record lows for failing to
rein in unemployment stuck above 10 percent and after a series of
policy mishaps by his cabinet team.
If losses are confirmed in next week's voting, that could speed up a
long-expected government reshuffle. If the UMP fails to convincingly
capitalise on Socialist losses, its current leader Jean-Francois
Cope could be replaced as party chairman.
Cope, a protege of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, already has
weak poll ratings. Sarkozy has hinted at a goal of standing again
for president in 2017 despite being named in a number of legal
investigations into improper party funding and other irregularities.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
(Additional reporting by Brian Love and Pauline Ades-Mevel;
editing
by Angus MacSwan)
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