Jean-Marie Le Pen

Hacked Kremlin tax messages emerged implying that Marine Le Pen's far-right party had been given a 9-million-euro loan by a Russian bank last year as "reward" for supporting President Vladimir Putin's annexation of the Crimea. This leak and a Holocaust-minimizing outburst by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, has left the French Front National leader's credibility tarnished.

Nicolas Sarkozy's Union for Popular Movement (UMP) party proved to be the big winner at the second round of France's local elections.

Paris and Lyon, France's two biggest cities have been excluded from the vote on Sunday.

France's ruling Socialists took a drubbing in run-off local polls on March 29 that saw major gains for former president Nicolas Sarkozy and the far-right ahead of 2017 presidential elections.        

The conservative party of former President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to dominate the final round of France?s local elections, give the far-right National Front another electoral breakthrough and deal a new blow to the governing Socialists.
                   

France's right-wing parties, led by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, edged out the far-right National Front to take first place in local elections on Sunday, in a crucial test ahead of 2017 presidential elections.
      

The conservative party of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy came in the lead at the local elections in the country on Sunday.

The National Front party, led by Marina Le Pen, on the other hand, achieved a stable result with approximately a quarter of the votes. Some of the main positions of the nationalists in France involve anti-immigration and anti-EU proposals.

France's National Front, one of the most powerful populist far right parties in Europe, eyed strong gains against the ruling socialists of President Francois Hollande in regional elections March 22.
     
The election's first round got underway at 8:00 am (0700 GMT) across 101 "departments", which control issues such as school and welfare budgets.
      

The European Parliament announced March 9 that it had alerted anti-fraud investigators to possible financial irregularities committed by France's far-right National Front (FN) party over salaries paid to EU parliamentary assistants.
      

French PM warns about rise of National Front

PARIS -- The far-right National Front is on track to win more votes than any other party in the first round of French local elections, Reuters quoted a poll on Monday.

At the same time, France's Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls spoke of "fear" that the party could also in win the presidential election in 2017.