Far-right party fails to win a single region

Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front did not win any region in French elections on Sunday, in a setback to her hopes of becoming a serious presidential contender in 2017.

The regional election runoff, in which the conservatives won seven constituencies and the Socialists won five, was no real victory for either of the two mainstream parties, shaken by the far right's growing appeal to disillusioned voters.

Boosted by fears about security and immigration after the Islamist militant attacks in Paris a month ago that killed 130 people, the National Front, or FN, had won more votes than any other party nationally in last week's first round.

Although it won no region on Sunday after the Socialists pulled out of its key target regions and urged their supporters to back the conservatives of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, the FN still recorded its best showing in its history.

"Tonight, there is no place for relief or triumphalism," Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls said. "The danger posed by the far right has not gone away; far from it."

Sarkozy struck a similar theme, calling the strong FN showing a "warning sent to all politicians, ourselves included, in the first round".

"We now have to take the time for in-depth debates about what worries the French, who expect strong and precise answers," he said.

Le Pen, who had hoped to use regional power as a springboard to boost her chances in 2017 presidential elections, lost by a huge margin in northern France on Sunday, where she led her party's ticket, attracting 42.8 percent of the votes in the runoff versus 57.2 percent for the conservatives.

Long content with attracting protest votes, the FN has changed strategy since Le Pen took the party over from her father, Jean-Marie, in 2011, seeking to build a base of locally elected officials to target the top levels of power.

But while it has been winning more and more votes in each election since then, its isolation in France's politics means it cannot strike the alliances it would need to win major constituencies. So it failed once more on Sunday to turn growing popularity into power.