Polls suggest ruling Socialists have just 43% of vote, compared to 48% for centre-right opposition, while FN has 7% support

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

France's far-right Front National party has made significant gains in local elections, when voters sent a message of deep dissatisfaction with the Socialist president François Hollande.

As the voting stations closed, polls were suggesting the governing Socialists had gained just 43% of the vote nationwide, compared with 48% for the centre-right opposition.

The FN was believed to have polled around 7% support, a considerable gain given that the party was represented in less than 600 of the 36,000 French municipalities where votes took place.

In the northern town of Hénin-Beaumont, the FN candidate was reported to have won a rare outright victory in the first of the two-round elections. The party was also reportedly ahead in a handful of other areas.

The FN's president Marine Le Pen said her party's victory meant the end of two-party politics in France.

"The Front National has arrived as a major independent force – a political force both at national and local level," Le Pen told French television.

Pollsters say the FN will be in a position to take control of half a dozen towns after next Sunday's run-off vote.

After the first results came in showing a surge in support for the FN, the Socialist prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called on "all democratic forces" to close ranks to keep the FN out.

"Wherever the FN is in a position to win the second round, all who support democracy and the republic have a duty to prevent them," Ayrault said in a television address.

The first exit polls suggested a historical level of abstention among voters hovering around 34%.

The agriculture minister, Stephane Le Foll said: "We are in the middle of trying to get the country back on its feet. Things are not easy."

In other areas, the strength of the FN vote has put the party in the position of power-broker for the second round vote next Sunday, 30 March..

In Paris, the centre-right UMP list of candidates headed by Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, was reported to have taken a very slight lead over the Socialist candidate and favourite Anne Hidalgo, based on results from all the French capital's 20 districts.

At Tulle, Hollande's former country constituency, the Socialist mayor Bernard Combes, a friend and adviser to the president, was re-elected with, reportedly, just over 65% of the vote.

On Sunday evening, estimates showed that as many as 38.5% of the electorate had stayed away from polling stations, an historically high level of abstentions.

Confirmed results from all of France's polling stations are not expected until Monday morning.