France's Front National faces ruin as Sarkozy steals Le Pen's clothes

France's xenophobic, anti-immigrant National Front party is facing financial ruin, with its vote set to crash in parliamentary elections tomorrow.

The far-right party led by Jean-Marie Le Pen looks like being swept aside by "la vague bleue" - the blue wave of support for the conservative UMP party of newly elected president Nicolas Sarkozy.

While the UMP is tipped to win up to 430 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, giving Mr Sarkozy a free reign to implement his "economic revolution", the National Front's performance is expected to be so poor it may lose its vote-dependent state subsidy of £3.1 million. The party now faces the prospect of selling its Paris headquarters.

In last month's presidential elections, Mr Le Pen lost nearly a million votes in comparison with 2002, scoring 10 per cent of the ballot in his worst result since 1974. This downward trend is expected to be confirmed in this month's parliamentary vote and in elections for municipal and regional councils, where the National Front is only expected to win between 3 and 8 per cent of the vote.

Even in its stronghold of Provence in southern France - where the National Front has won between 20 and 25 per cent of the vote and once controlled four city councils - the party is expected to see its vote cut in half.

The meltdown can be explained in a name: Nicolas Sarkozy.

The UMP leader has appropriated Mr Le Pen's rhetoric on immigration and law and order, creating a new ministry of immigration and national identity and stealing 38 per cent of the far-right winger's 2002 voters in last month's presidential polls. Mr Sarkozy enjoys 88 per cent popularity among National Front supporters, polls show.

Despite turning 79 later this month, Mr Le Pen refuses to relinquish his position as party leader.

The bickering Socialists are set to face further humiliation after the defeat of presidential candidate Ségolène Royal with their number of seats possibly falling as low as 115. Centrist Francois Bayrou is forecast to win only a handful of seats for his new Democratic Movement party after most of his MPs defected to Mr Sarkozy. The French Communist Party is also in danger of losing nine of its current 21 deputies after a disastrous result of less than 2 per cent in the presidentials.

The Scotsman