"We defeated the Rassemblement National": With these words the right-wing leading candidate Xavier Bertrand celebrated his election victory on Sunday evening in the northern French adopted home Marine Le Pens.

The Le Pen party failed again to conquer one of the thirteen major regions.

In the Mediterranean region Provence Alps Cote d'Azur (Paca), the incumbent Regional Council President Renaud Muselier (LR) surprisingly prevailed against the RN candidate Thierry Mariani.

According to initial projections, Muselier received 56 percent of the vote.

In surveys he had been predicted a wafer-thin victory of 51 percent.

Michaela Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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    The slight increase in voter turnout in the holiday region in the second ballot did not benefit the RN, as was initially assumed.

    Marine Le Pen failed with her strategy of “nationalizing” the regional elections and using them as a springboard for the presidential election next spring.

    The turnout remained at a very low level of 35 percent.

    Civil rights emerged stronger from the second ballot.

    In the former RN stronghold in the de-industrialized north, Bertrand came over the 50 percent mark and thus positions himself as a serious candidate for president.

    According to projections, he received 53 percent of the vote.

    The RN candidate Sébastien Chenu was beaten with 25 percent of the vote.

    Disinterest in the election date

    Also in the economically second strongest region of France, Auvergne Rhone Alpes, the incumbent LR regional council president Laurent Wauquiez was confirmed for a new term of office with a result of 55 percent of the votes. In Alsace, around 39 percent of voters voted for the incumbent LR regional council president Jean Rottner. In Normandy, centrist and former Defense Minister Hervé Morin was re-elected President of the Regional Council. In any case, there was an official bonus. In Occitania, New Aquitaine, Burgundy and the Central Loire Valley region, the socialist regional council presidents were confirmed in office.

    Former Labor Minister Bertrand used his success in northern France to position himself as the “third man” in the race for the presidency.

    On election evening he announced that he would “speak to all French people” in the next few weeks.

    For both Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, the result is a significant damper.

    Just like RN, La République en marche (LREM) could not conquer a region.

    Macron's hoped for anchoring his party in the vast country is making slow progress.

    A large part of the French showed disinterest in the election date.

    At the same time as the decision in the regions, the electorate also had to decide on the composition of the departmental councils.

    Here, too, voter turnout was very low at just under 35 percent.