5TH LEAD Far-right National Front party leads French regional elections By Gerd Roth, dpa

Paris (dpa) - France‘s anti-immigration National Front party was the clear winner in first round regional elections held Sunday just over three weeks after terrorists attacks in Paris killed 130 people.The far-right party led by Marine Le Pen received about 28 per cent of ballots cast nationwide, according to the French Interior Ministry early Monday on the basis of nearly all votes counted.The National Front "is now the first party of France," Le Pen told cheering supporters, saying they had achieved "great results" for the party in the last major election before the next presidential vote in 2017.The ruling Socialist Party of President Francois Hollande trailed in third place with about 23.5 per cent, the French Interior Ministry reported. Hollande‘s personal rise in opinion polls since the November 13 terrorist attacks failed to translate to more support for his party.Le Pen‘s party, which capitalized on its hardline immigration positions in the wake of the attacks claimed by the Islamic State, was also leading in six of the country‘s 13 regions. But their chances of winning in the second round were weakened by the decision of the Socialist party to withdraw their lists in those regions.The Republicans, a conservative party led by Hollande‘s predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, and its centre-right allies, took 27 per cent of the vote.The 47-year-old Le Pen was far out front of competitors for the seat in northern region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie. Her niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, had a significant lead in the southern Provence-Alpes-Cote d‘Azur region.Marine Le Pen became the face of the party in 2011, succeeding her father Jean-Marie, who led the party since founding it in 1972.The National Front, which wants France to pull out of the eurozone, close its borders and often warns of the "islamization" of French society, had been predicted to do well.But analysts caution that it will could face a tougher challenge when the second round of voting takes place on December 13.In past runoff elections the populist party has failed to take control of city and regional governments, losing out to the more established parties.Candidates require at least 10 per cent of the first-round votes to qualify for next week‘s run-off. The Socialist are counting on support from the Greens and the Left Party to keep National Front from office in the second round.Sarkozy said Sunday he would not form an alliance with Hollande‘s Socialists, nor would he withdraw party candidates, in order to thwart the National Front from winning in the second round.Analysts say the National Front could gain control of four regions after the second round of voting.Besides terrorism, key focal points in the campaign were persistent record unemployment, poor economic data, high government debt and the slowness of reforms.The elections took place after France slashed the number of its regions from 22 to 13 to cut costs.Some 43 per cent of the 44.6 million citizens eligible to vote had cast their ballots by late afternoon, up four points from the last regional elections in 2010.