Sarkozy denies far-right Le Pen victory in French polls
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Former president Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative UMP party and their allies led in the first round of French local elections, exit polls showed on Sunday, denying Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front (FN) first place.
If confirmed, the result would be a setback for Le Pen, who had hoped her anti-immigrant, anti-euro party would emerge top in the first round, boosting her ambitions to win presidential elections set for 2017. The UMP and its partners together secured 29.2 percent of the vote nationally, an exit poll by Ifop showed, ahead of the anti-immigrant, anti-euro FN on 26.3 percent. A separate poll by CSA put Sarkozy and his allies on as much as 31 percent, with the FN on 24.5 percent. As expected, President Francois Hollande's ruling Socialists came third with around 20 percent of the vote, underlining their unpopularity after failed promises to bring unemployment down from current levels around 10 percent.
