Pollsters in France are predicting that the country’ far-right National Front party was routed in the second round of regional elections on December 13, with some estimates suggesting the party failed to win in a single region.
Exit polls from the second-round ballot suggest that even the National Front’s leader, Marine le Pen, and her niece failed to secure victories.
Le Pen and her anti-immigration party had won the first-round vote on December 6, just weeks after extremists with ties to the Islamic State militant group killed 130 people in a series of terrorist attacks across Paris.
The strong first-round showing for the National Front prompted the Socialist Party to pull out of races in northern and southeastern France and urge their supporters to support conservative candidates from a center-right alliance in order to prevent far-right victories.
