France’s Leftist parties are rallying together after an unexpected high showing of the anti-immigrant, anti-Europe Front National party (FN) in local elections.  The results reflected voter exasperation with the ruling Socialists of the current president and the main opposition UMP of the former president.

The Socialists are joining forces with the Greens and the Communist Party in an effort to block FN advances in the second round.  It will mean the three parties fielding combined electoral lists.  Things are sunnier in Paris, where the Socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo, may still beat her mainstream conservative rival Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet.  That contest looks set to be very tight.

Sunday’s turnout slumped to a record low of 61 percent, as many of those who voted for President Francois Hollande two years ago stayed home.  But despite that, the FN managed to score big, running in only 600 of 36,000 constituencies and still getting five percent of the vote.

It signals a potential crisis for those who believe the FN hasn’t strayed from its extreme right, racist roots.  FN’s leader Marine Le Pen was fined last year for anti-Roma remarks.  And LePen was forced to drop a FN candidate last year when her true colors appeared in a race-baiting row over France’s Justice Minister, who was born in French Guiana.  And the headline on the left-leaning Nouvel Observateur magazine screamed, “The new age of the extreme right”. 

“Even if the FN only ends up with a handful of town halls, it's certainly a historic performance and success for Le Pen's party,” read the article, “The FN appears more and more clearly as an alternative, capable of taking responsibility and managing the affairs of a community and this is the greatest success of Marine Le Pen.”

The second round of local elections is next weekend.