Regional elections pose crucial test for French far-right

Electoral campaign posters for the northern France region including (right) local candidate Steeve Briois and far-right leader Marine Le Pen (Michel Spingler/AP)

A decisive, second round of voting in France’s regional elections on Sunday is being scrutinised as a litmus test of whether the anti-immigration far-right is gaining in acceptability before the French presidential election next year.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally, has spent a decade trying to cast off the extremist reputation that made the party anathema to many French voters in its previous guise as the National Front.