Far-right makes gains in French elections

France's far-right National Front party has dealt a major blow to the ruling Socialists, with huge rise in support and several of its candidates in prime position in the first round of local elections.

The main right-wing opposition UMP party also hailed a "big victory" on Sunday as initial polls showed it came out on top, amid falling approval ratings for the government of President Francois Hollande against a backdrop of near-zero economic growth and high unemployment.

According to a BVA poll, the UMP and allies took 48 percent of the vote nationwide while the Socialist party and allies took 43 percent.

The National Front won seven percent - far higher than its 0.9 percent result in the first round of 2008 municipal polls and a high national tally given it fielded candidates in only 596 of 36,000 municipalities.

The party's leader, Marine Le Pen, said the polls marked the "end of the bipolarisation of the political scene" and were "an exceptional vintage" for her party.

"The National Front has arrived as a major independent force - a political force both at the national and local level," Le Pen, who won 18 percent of votes in the 2012 presidential election, told TF1 television. 

The party's Steeve Briois was declared outright winner to run the former northern coalmining town of Henin-Beaumont, which has long been in Socialist hands.

Exit polls also put the National Front ahead in the eastern town of Forbach, in France's former industrial heartland. In the south, it was in the lead in Avignon, Perpignan, Beziers and Frejus and vying for second place in Marseille behind the conservative incumbent.

There was some solace for the Socialists as a TNS Sofres exit poll showed their candidate for Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, was ahead of her conservative rival Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet. 

The strong showing by the National Front will alarm Europe's liberal progressives, with the party long associated with racism and anti-Semitic statements. 

Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie, was prosecuted several times while party leader for Holocaust denial, once referring to the deaths of millions of Jews as a "detail in the history of World War Two".

He has also been prosecuted for incitement to discriminate against Muslims.

Since becoming leader in 2011, Marine Le Pen has sanctioned or ejected party members found to have made racist comments in an attempt to make the party more palatable to French voters. Her policies focus on reduced immigration and take a stance against EU enlargement.