VOTERS in the Doubs department of eastern France delivered a narrow victory to Socialist Party candidate Frederic Barbier today in a battle with the far-right National Front (FN).

He said that his victory over FN candidate Sophie Montel had been helped in part by the French government’s response to “the acts of war against the citizens of our country.”

Mr Barbier warned that the FN distilled “intolerance, hatred, racism, anti-semitism” and was “becoming a real threat to our country.”

But the narrowness of his victory by 51.4 per cent to 48.6 per cent led Ms Montel to portray the FN as the election’s “big winner.”

She had led after the first round the previous weekend having fought an Islamophobic campaign based on recent attacks in Paris, while Mr Barbier looked for the unity vote.

FN leader Marine Le Pen has denounced what she calls “massive immigration,” linking it to the rise of jihadist extremism.