European Parliament constituencies in France

The French far-right again failed to win a single region in elections on June 27 exit polls showed, depriving its leader Marine Le Pen of a chance to show her party is fit for power ahead of next year's presidential election.   

Marine Le Pen should step down as leader of France's far-right National Front (FN) after disappointing results in the presidential and parliamentary elections, her father who founded the anti-establishment party said on June 20.

"In 1984, Jean-Marie Le Pen said something that heralded what is happening today. He spoke of the 'Le Pen-ization' of conscience," French-Algerian writer Karim Amellal told Skai TV's "Istories" program on Tuesday while describing precisely how things came to be.

Here's how the French presidential election is going to work. This Sunday's vote will pick the leading two candidates, who will then have another two weeks to campaign for the run-off vote. But the leading four candidates are now bunched together so closely in the polls that any two of them could make it through to the second round. Including a couple of quite worrisome people.

France's far-right leader Marine Le Pen launched her presidential campaign on Feb. 4, with anti-EU and "freedom" for France messages, hoping her anti-establishment message will carry her to power later this year.

France's far-right National Front (FN) on May 3 suspended founder Jean-Marie Le Pen over a string of controversial remarks and amid a deepening feud with his daughter Marine, who now leads the party.

France's far-right National Front chief Marine Le Pen said May 3 her father should "no longer be able to speak in the name of" the party, as a bitter public feud between the two deepens.