FRANCE: Far-Right Loses Every Regional Election

This is quite surprising considering recent events. The Independent reports:

The far right Front National (FN) was unexpectedly vanquished in all parts of France last night after disgruntled moderate voters surged back to the polls in the second round of regional elections.

In a nationwide vote watched with anxiety all over Europe, Marine Le Pen’s deodorised far-right party failed to build on its triumphs in the first round on the previous Sunday, when it had topped the poll in six of the 12 newly drawn regions of mainland France.

The Prime Minister, Mr Valls, hailed the result as a “victory for the Republic” and the “values of fraternity, common sense and togetherness” which had always triumphed in the “darkest moments of our country’s history”.

The FN candidates – including Ms Le Pen herself in the Calais-Lille-Amiens area in the north, and her 26-year-old niece Marion Maréchal-Le Pen in the south-east – were heavily defeated by a combination of left-wing tactical voting and an avalanche of 3.5 million previous non-voters who returned to the polling booths yesterday.

Le Pen plans on running for president in 2017. Her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, founded the Front National Party and has been charged multiple times for denying that the Holocaust happened. Front National is a backer of the anti-LGBT and NOM-affiliated Manif Pour Tous.

CORRECTION: In the first draft of this post, I incorrectly wrote that the elder Le Pen had been “jailed.” In fact, while Le Pen has been found guilty of inciting racial hatred at least six times, his punishments have included massive fines but no jail time.