France Votes Amid Tensions Around Attacks, Migration

French voters are casting ballots Sunday for regional leaders in an unusually tense security climate, expected to favor conservative and far right candidates and strike a new blow against the governing Socialists.
France Votes Amid Tensions Around Attacks, Migration
Marine Le Pen, French conservative leader of right-wing party National Front, leaves the polling station after voting for the first round of regional elections, Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015, in Henin-Beaumont, northern France. AP Photo/Michel Spingler
The Associated Press
Updated:

PARIS—French voters are casting ballots Sunday for regional leaders in an unusually tense security climate, expected to favor conservative candidates and strike a new blow against the governing Socialists.

Islamic State-inspired attacks on Paris Nov. 13 and a Europe-wide migrant crisis this year have shaken up France’s political landscape.

Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Front is hoping the two-round voting that starts Sunday will consolidate political gains she has made in recent years—and strengthen its legitimacy as she prepares to seek the presidency in 2017.

The unpopular Socialist President Francois Hollande has seen his approval ratings jump since the Paris attacks, as he intensified French airstrikes on Islamic State (ISIS) targets in Syria and Iraq and ordered a state of emergency at home. But his party, which currently runs nearly all of France’s regions, has seen its electoral support shrivel in recent years amid economic disappointment.

Voters are choosing leadership for the country’s 13 newly redrawn regions in elections that start Sunday and go to a second round Dec. 13.

People walk past electoral posters of conservative National Front party regional leader for southern France, Marion Marechal-Le Pen (L), and French right-wing party Les Republicains candidate Christian Estrosi, in Nice, southeastern France, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)
People walk past electoral posters of conservative National Front party regional leader for southern France, Marion Marechal-Le Pen (L), and French right-wing party Les Republicains candidate Christian Estrosi, in Nice, southeastern France, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015. AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau