Exit polls: FN top in regional vote
Far-right party has 41% of the first-round vote in Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Paca regions, initial estimates suggest
EXIT polls suggest the Front National has come top in the first round of France's regional elections, with between 27.5% and 30% of the vote.
The Républicains, formerly known as the UMP, are second with an estimated 27.5% and President Hollande's Socialist party third with about 22%.
According to the first polling estimates, FN leader Marine Le Pen has won in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie region with 41% of the vote.
An Ipsos poll puts her niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen top in the Paca region, also with an estimated 41%.
Some estimates also put the Front National first in Alsace-Lorraine-Champagne Ardenne, Centre, Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrénées and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
Marine Le Pen said the results "confirm what previous polls had announced ... [the FN] is now arguably the largest party in France, while it is barely represented in parliament".
She said these were "magnificent results that we welcome with humility and with a deep sense of responsibility".
This weekend's first round is the first electoral test since the Paris terror attacks, and the popularity of the far-right FN is being closely watched.
Républicains leader Nicolas Sarkozy said an FN protest vote "must be considered and of course respected", but he described the far-right group as "a party which would dramatically worsen the situation of France and could create the conditions for dangerous disorder".
He urged people to vote in the second round next Sunday, saying: "This distrust was also expressed by abstention. I want to tell all the French people that their silence in the polls will never be an answer to their concern and anguish."
