France: Far Right Scores Big In Elections

Marine Le Pen secured the highest score for the far-Right in French presidential election history on Sunday, in a third-place finish that will present a major challenge to the two mainstream candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande, left in the race.

According to official forecasts, the 43-year-old daughter of the founder of the National Front (NF) secured between 18.2 and 20 per cent of the vote, performing even better than Jean Marie Le Pen’s shock result in 2002, when he won 17 per cent.

At her press conference on Sunday night she burst into a rendition of La Marseillaise in front of delirious supporters waving the national flag.

“Whatever happens over the next two weeks, the battle for France has only just begun,” she said.

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