France's far-right National Front (FN) failed to win a single region in elections despite record results, as voters flocked to traditional parties to keep them out of power.
With presidential elections due in 2017, the anti-immigration FN had hoped the regional polls would act as a springboard for leader Marine Le Pen.
But despite a best-ever national vote tally for the FN, she was trounced by the right-wing opposition in the northern Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie region after the ruling Socialists pulled out of the race before the second round.
Her 26-year-old niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen was also clearly defeated by the right-wing grouping in the southern region that includes the glitzy resorts of the Cote d'Azur, despite dominating the first round last week.
The party had topped the vote in six of 13 regions on December 6, with a 28 per cent national share, propelled by anger over the struggling economy and fears created by last month's jihadist attacks in Paris that left 130 dead.
But exactly a month on from those attacks, voters turned out in force -- some 58 per cent took part, up from 50 per cent in the first round -- and once again trounced the FN when it came down to the wire.
The ruling Socialists of President Francois Hollande won in five regions, while the centre-right alliance of his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy took seven. Nationalists won in Corsica.
One of the biggest upsets on Sunday came in the Paris region, which shifted from left to right for the first time in 17 years.
Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned that despite the result "the danger of the far-right has not been removed, far from it".
Sarkozy, leader of the Republicans party, praised the voters who turned out on Sunday but said "the warnings" of the first round must not be forgotten.
The front page of conservative daily Le Figaro announced "The right wins, the left holds up, the FN falls", but the Catholic newspaper Le Croix was more succinct, saying only "Everybody loses".
In an editorial titled "Not a victory but the absence of defeat", left-wing Liberation said it was fear of the far-right which had mobilised the left, rather than any renewed enthusiasm for the Socialist Party.
Final results showed Le Pen scored around 42 per cent to nearly 58 per cent for her right-wing rival Xavier Bertrand in the economically depressed north.
Her niece took around 45 per cent of the vote to nearly 55 per cent for her right-wing rival in the FN's traditional stronghold in Provence-Alpes-Cote-d'Azur.
Both women had easily won the first round.
In a combative speech to supporters after polls closed, Le Pen said "nothing can stop us now".
"In its northern and southern bastions we've eradicated the evil-doing Socialist Party," she said. "By tripling our number of councillors, we will be the main opposition force in most of the regions of France.
