One in two voters back far-right in French by-election

PARIS - France 24

President of the French far-right Front National (FN) party Marine Le Pen acknowledges the crowd after a meeting during a visit in the French northeastern village of Brachay on October 6, 2013. AFP photo

The far-right achieved a massive 49.5 percent landslide in the first round of a by-election Sunday in the Brignoles constituency of the Var region of southern France.

National Front (FN) candidate Laurent Lopez took 40.4 percent of the vote, with another far-right party, the “Parti de France”, taking 9.1 percent. The centre-right UMP, France’s main opposition parliamentary party, came second with 20.8 percent.

With no single candidate taking more than half of the vote, the by-election will go to a second round.