France's conservatives move toward Front National

For the second round of France's parliamentary elections on Sunday, the conservative UMP has refrained from saying it would join a "republican front" and support a Socialist candidate to prevent a victory of the far right Front National (FN). The lines that divide the UMP and the Front National ideologically are becoming increasingly indistinct, the satirical weekly Le Canard enchaîné fears: "In refusing to endorse a republican front, the UMP is only further blurring the lines that separate it from the FN, which had already been severely compromised by Sarkozy. Above and beyond little electoral arrangements between the two rounds, certain candidates will stop at nothing to save their seat or settle an old score. One may well worry about the consequences of these ideological affinities with a Front National that the UMP continues to render more acceptable in trying to put the Socialist Party on a par with the Left Front [whose support the Socialists may need to achieve a parliamentary majority]. Especially now that the centre has disintegrated."

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