Alwaght- Anti-Muslim France's far-right National Front Party saw record-high results in regional polls on Sunday, held under a state of emergency following the recent Paris terrorist attacks.
Polling agency projections said that the FN came first with between 27.2 percent and 30.8 percent of the vote nationwide, topping the list in at least six of 13 regions.
FN leader Marine Le Pen and her 25-year-old niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen broke the 40 percent mark in their respective regions, capitalizing on their anti-immigration and Islamophobic message especially after the Paris attacks.
According to the French newspaper Le Monde, the National Front is projected to get close to 7 million votes - twice as much as "the shock of 21 April 2002", when Jean-Marie Le Pen (Marine's estranged father) surprised French pollsters by getting to the second round of presidential elections, beating the Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin. Le Pen received 4.8 million votes but was defeated in a run-off against Jaques Chirac.
Last October Marine Le Pen was put on trial in the southern city of Lyon five years after she compared Muslim street prayers to Nazi occupation. The charges were brought forward by four anti-racism and human rights organisations. Le Pen's litigious comments referred to Muslims praying on the street outside of mosques when they are full.
"That actually is the occupation of territory," she told a crowd of sympathisers in Lyon in 2010.
In France, "occupation" is the generic term used to refer to the period of administration by the Nazis of French territory. She faces a $51,000 fine and a year in prison if found guilty. The court's ruling is expected at a later date. This harsh critic of Islam, has now won regional polls in France.
However it is still unclear whether FN can translate Sunday's performance into victory in the second round of voting on December 13 for leadership of France's 13 newly drawn regions.
In France regional governments’ regional governments have power over issues such as local transport, airports, ports and some schools.
The result is set to provide a sense of the national political mood barely 18 months before the presidential election
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In Focus
Ansarullah
A Zaidi Shiite movement operating in Yemen. It seeks to establish a democratic government in Yemen.
Shiite
represents the second largest denomination of Islam. Shiites believe Ali (peace be upon him) to be prophet"s successor in the Caliphate.
Resistance
Axis of Resistances refers to countries and movements with common political goal, i.e., resisting against Zionist regime, America and other western powers. Iran, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Palestine are considered as the Axis of Resistance.
Persian Gulf Cooperation Council
A regional political u n i o n consisting of Arab states of the Persian Gulf, except for Iraq.
Taliban
Taliban is a Sunni fundamentalist movement in Afghanistan. It was founded by Mohammed Omar in 1994.
Wahhabism & Extremism
Wahhabism is an extremist pseudo-Sunni movement, which labels non-Wahhabi Muslims as apostates thus paving the way for their bloodshed.
Kurds
Kurds are an ethnic group in the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region, which spans adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They are an Iranian people and speak the Kurdish languages, which form a subgroup of the Northwestern Iranian branch of Iranian languages.
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949.
Islamic Awakening
Refers to a revival of the Islam throughout the world, that began in 1979 by Iranian Revolution that established an Islamic republic.
Al-Qaeda
A militant Sunni organization founded by Osama bin Laden at some point between 1988 and 1989
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