French system was stacked against Le Pen

When push came to shove in the two-step poll process, voters preferred moderates over extremists

When former French president Charles De Gaulle and his advisers sat down in the mid-1960s to draft the constitution of the Fifth Republic, they did so in the knowledge that they needed to come up with an electoral framework that would allow voters to express their support for extreme left and rightwing groups, but would also force them to make a hard choice on that initial decision a week later.

The genius of that system is that it largely ensures that moderates will be at the centre of power. And that framework is largely to explain why the right-wing racists of Marine Le Pen’s National Front party were shut out of power in elections held across France on Sunday. A week before, Le Pen’s party had been majority winners in regional governments and were in pole position heading into Sunday’s run-off in the two-step vote. Yes, voters gave Le Pen’s group 26.1 per cent support — not enough to gain control of a single council or overcome left-wing tactical voting for moderates, just as De Gaulle and his constitutional framers had envisaged.

There is no doubt that Le Pen’s anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim message resonates with French voters in the wake of the terrorist attacks there last month and with the events in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo shootings.

What this result has shown is that she will be a contender in the presidential elections in April 2017, but risks being shut out to a more moderate candidate in the final round of voting. Nicholas Sarkozy will benefit from this exercise.