Marine Le Pen’s result in last Sunday’s French elections confounded the experts but does not signal the rise of the far right in Europe

Abstract

Pollsters often get election results wrong, and this week’s French elections were no exception, with Front National candidate Marine Le Pen gaining more votes than was widely expected. As part of our continuing series on the French elections, Marley Morris reflects on the result, finding that while we should be careful to not exaggerate the success of Le Pen, the result puts her and not left-winger Mélenchon in the spotlight