Far- right eyes big gains in second round
France yesterday voted with the far-right National Front (FN) hoping to win control of a region for the first time, giving leader Marine Le Pen a launchpad for her presidential bid in 2017.
Voting opened amid heightened security, especially in Paris, as France remains under a state of emergency declared after the November 13 attacks that claimed 130 lives.
The anti-immigration FN topped the vote in six of 13 regions in the first round of voting last Sunday, capitalising on security fears in the wake of the Paris attacks.
But the FN faces an uphill battle to consolidate those gains after the ruling Socialist Party withdrew its candidates from two key regions and urged their supporters there to back former president Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative Republicans.
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