Socialist Francois Hollande and President Nicolas Sarkozy progressed to the second round of France’s presidential election as a record vote for the anti- immigrant National Front left the contest open.

Hollande got 28.4 percent of the first round of voting and Sarkozy won 25.5 percent, according to polling company Ipsos. The anti-euro Marine Le Pen won 20 percent, surpassing all recent opinion polls, the company said. Communist Party-backed Jean-Luc Melenchon got 11.7 percent, and self-styled centrist Francois Bayrou got 8.5 percent, said Ipsos.

But Le Pen’s record score of 19.6 percent was the sensation of the night, beating her father’s 2002 result and outpolling hard leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon in fourth place on 11 percent. Centrist Francois Bayrou finished fifth on less than 9 percent.

It was the first time a sitting president seeking re-election had been beaten into second place in the first round. But Sarkozy backers at his campaign headquarters chanted “We are going to win”, interpreting Le Pen’s score as more significant than Hollande’s narrow lead over the incumbent.

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