Some PS candidates told to withdraw to keep out Front National, which took almost 30% of vote in first round of local elections

France’s traditional political parties have held a series of emergency meetings to thrash out tactics to defeat the Front National after the far right scored a historic victory in the first round of local elections.



The governing Socialist party (PS) has urged its supporters and the country’s centre-right opposition to form a “republican bloc” against the FN. The official opposition, Les Républicains (LR), led by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, has refused any deals.



The country awoke on Monday to confirmation that the far-right FN, led by Marine Le Pen, polled a record score of almost 30% of the national vote on Sunday.



Le Pen’s party is ahead in six of metropolitan France’s 13 departments after the first round vote, requiring some painful political decisions from the PS, which came third, and LR, which came second but failed to win the support it expected.



The PS has instructed its candidates to withdraw if they are in third place and for supporters to vote tactically to keep out the FN.

However, the order has already sparked rebellion. In the east of the country, Jean-Pierre Masseret, the PS candidate who came third with 15.5% of the vote, compared with 25.3% for the centre-right candidate and 37.6% for the FN, has refused to bow out of the second round.

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Analysts have warned that in some areas, including FN strongholds in Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur (PACA) in the south and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie in the north, even this political manoeuvre may not be enough to stop the far right taking control.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, who is standing in the Provence-Alpes-Cote-d’Azur region for the FN, at the results on Sunday. Photograph: Kayak/Sipa/Rex Shutterstock

Sarkozy has refused to issue the same guidance to his party’s candidates, insisting there will be “no fusion and no withdrawal”. This hardline position known as “ni-ni” (neither-nor) has caused a major disagreement at the heart of the party.

After its political bureau crisis meeting, LR announced it would apply Sarkozy’s line, ruling out any alliances with rival parties.

An opinion poll in Le Parisien on Monday suggested LR and its centre-right allies, including the centrist MoDem party, will poll 59% of the vote in the second round next Sunday, against 41% for the FN. However, most analysts agree the FN has a good chance of winning in at least two areas.

A victorious Le Pen described the FN as “France’s first party” after its unprecedented triumph on Sunday. In 2010, the party scored about 11% of the national vote in the departmental elections.

Support for the FN has risen steadily since 2011 when Le Pen took control of the party, founded in the 1970s by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and set out to “de-demonise” its racist and xenophobic image. Father and daughter have since embarked on a bitter, and very public, family feud.



In May, Le Pen Sr was suspended from his role as honorary president of the party after falling out with his daughter over remarks about the Holocaust. He was thrown out of the party in August.



Le Parisien’s front page carried pictures of the victorious Le Pen, her niece Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, who polled an unprecedented score in the PACA region, and FN deputy Florian Philippot with the headline: “The FN at the gates of power”.