Yes, the FN won the 2011 cantonal election and barely lost the 2012 by-election. I don't see why everybody is making such a big deal of the FN win here; it certainly isn't good news for the left and it's nice for the FN, but this isn't like the FN just came out of nowhere to win.
There's a lot of manufactured outrage, isn't there? Government tried to push the "front républicain" option hard to make them seem more sensible than the UMP (with its Fillon flip-flopping). But that would work only if the FN lost; now both left and right are picking at the remains.
