Jean-Marie Le Pen’s extreme right-wing National Front won a seat in the National Assembly in one runoff election Sunday and came close to winning a seat in another.
National Front candidate Marie-France Stirbois gained an overwhelming victory in Dreux, a city of about 14,000 just west of Paris. She scored with 61 percent of the vote against a de facto coalition of all other parties lined up to beat her.
In Marseille, France’s second largest city, the National Front’s Marie-Claude Roussel came within less than 1,200 votes of beating the center-right opponent, a respected medical doctor and professor at the Marseilles medical school.
The first round of the two special elections were held on Nov. 26. Since no candidate received an absolute majority, runoff contests were held a week later.
They were closely watched by political observers as an indication of how political currents are running in France.
Stirbois, who did very well in the first round was virtually assured of victory in the runoff.
Dreux, in any event, is a stronghold of right-wing voters susceptible to the National Front’s appeals to racism and xenophobia. The town has a large population of foreign immigrant workers, mainly from North Africa, who have been Le Pen’s main target in recent years.
Le Pen, meanwhile, has appealed to the Supreme Court to order new elections in Marseille. The right-wing leader contends that Prime Minister Michel Rocard violated the law by electioneering before the polls closed, urging Socialists to back the center-right candidate.
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