The far-right Front National party, headed up by the controversial Marine Le Pen, made incredible gains in the first round of regional elections in France on Sunday. Many believe increased fear and anger following the Daesh-coordinated attacks in Paris last month garnered increased popularity for the hard-line party.
According to the France's interior ministry, Le Pen’s party secured 29.4 percent of the vote nationally, with over 85 percent of the votes counted. The anti-immigration party came first place in six of the 13 regions.
France is still recovering from the devastating attacks last month which saw 130 people killed. Le Pen takes a tough stance on extremism and immigration, with many describing her as racist and Islamophobic. A French court reportedly ruled that a comedian was within his rights to describe her as a “fascist b-----”.
In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, she was quoted as saying:
“Islamist fundamentalism must be annihilated, France must ban Islamist organizations, close radical mosques and expel foreigners who preach hatred in our country as well as illegal migrants who have nothing to do here.”
Twitter users have reacted humorosly to the news, however the joking has a rather a serious undertone. See below via Twitter.
@Marion_M_Le_Pen Bravo connasse ! Voilà ce que tu vas apporter ! https://t.co/0mkBxqIt1d
— Alyen Ségara (@AlyenSegara) December 7, 2015Bravo bitch! This is what you're going to bring!
Daesh a invité Marine le Pen à fêter les résultats des élections tous ensemble en Syrie.
— YANIS (@YanisWilson) December 6, 2015Daesh invited Marine Le Pen to celebrate the election results all together in Syria.
Moi quand j'ai vu que Marine le pen à gagné le premier tour pic.twitter.com/a03ArPkIRP
— Eternity (@pierrevdb2001) December 6, 2015Me when I saw that Marine Le Pen had won the first round.
La France c'est de plus en plus comme si Hitler avait gagné #Regionales2015 #FrontNational #MarineLePen #polqc pic.twitter.com/D6IcFXWL36
— Paco Lebel (@PacoLebel) December 7, 2015France is more like if Hitler had won
