Far-right set for big gains in first French elections since Paris terror attacks

France’s far-right National Front looked on course for gaining control of at least one region for the first time, as polls opened on Sunday in the first elections since the Paris attacks. The party is tipped to to take the lead in as many as six out of 13 regions after the first round. Voter participation among the 44.6 million people eligible to take part stood at 16.27% at midday, marginally higher than five years ago. "We’re just in the first round but we hope to have as big a lead as possible so the momentum is the strongest possible,“ NF leader Marine Le Pen said after voting in the party’s northern stronghold of Henin-Beaumont.

I trust the voters because they have seen us work … and that’s why they are moving towards us

Marine Le Pen

France remains in a state of emergency following the country’s worst-ever terror attacks, which killed 130 people. First projections are expected at 1900 GMT with FN leader Ms Le Pen on course to top the poll in the economically depressed Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie region in the north, once a bastion of the left. President Francois Hollande, who cast his vote Sunday morning in Evry, to the south of Paris, has seen his personal ratings surge as a result of his hardline approach since the Paris attacks. However his Socialist party has not enjoyed a similar boost and is languishing at about 22% of the vote.

After the November 13 attacks we saw a clear increase in support for the National Front. Everything is adding up for (it) to make an unprecedented score

Ifop pollster analyst Jerome Fourquet

Politics France elections