Nicolas Sarkozy leads party to elections win

The far-right National Front has strengthened its presence in France’s grassroots politics in a second round of local elections that exit polls showed was won by ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservatives.

Sarkozy’s UMP and its allies will take over 66-70 departements, up from 41, while the ruling Socialists will hold only 27-31 of the 61 they previously held, the poll by CSA for BFMTV said. A poll by Ipsos-Sopra Steria had similar results.

Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigrant, anti-euro National Front party was unlikely to win more than two departements, according to the polls, but will have a base of locally elected officials to become more mainstream and better placed to contest national ballots. The National Front previously controlled no departements.