World Jewish News

unday's runoff elections saw the extreme right Front National of Marine Le Pen (pictred) failing to win any regional presidency.

Jewish umbrella group in France welcomes regional elections defeat of Marine Le Pen's Front National party

CRIF, the umbrella representative body of Jewish organisations in France, welcomed Sunday’s French regional runoff elections which saw the extreme right Front National of Marine Le Pen failing to win any regional presidency.

CRIF had called on voters to block the party after it won the first round nationally and claimed victories in six of the country’s 13 regions.

‘’CRIF welcomes with satisfaction the citizen’s reaction which blocked the road of regions to the Front National,’’ it said in a statement.

''The strong citizen mobilization around the Republican values should be for the government and the entire political class an opportunity to effectively address the causes of growth of extremes,’’ it added.

Exit polls on Sunday evening showed the center-right Republican Party of former President Nicolas Sarkozy taking more regional presidencies seats than the ruling Socialist Party of President Francois Hollande.

The Socialist candidates reportedly pulled out in the northern region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie and in the South’s Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur, where Marine Le Pen’s niece was on the ballot, allowing their voters to support the Republican candidates in the runoffs.

The Front National founder Jean-Marie Le Pen has been several times convicted for racism and anti-Semitism. But her daughter Marine, who took over the party’s leadership, has distanced herself and the party from her father and his record.

by Joseph Byron

EJP