“The right and the left broke everything!” Front National 2007 election campaign poster trying to appeal to minority voters. Public domain. [All links lead to French-language pages unless otherwise noted.] When France's Eurosceptic right-wing Front National (FN) party topped the country's polls in last month's European elections, it had its hardline immigration stance to thank. A whopping 91 percent of people who voted for the Marine Le Pen-led FN said immigration was the most decisive factor, according to an opinion poll carried out by the French Institute of Public Opinion. It may come as a surprise then, that some of their 25 percent of votes came from minorities, the very target of some of their proposed policies. France prohibits any public statistics based on race or ethnicity, so a definite report on voting according to ethnicity isn't available. But for instance, in the French West Indies, where the majority of the population is black, the Front National came third in Guadeloupe and second in Saint-Martin/Saint-Bathélemy. In Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, they came fourth. Christophe, who lives in Poitiers, France, wrote in Le Plus Nouvel Obs blog that he used to vote for the left-wing party, but voted for the FN this time around: J'ai traversé une période de rejet du politique, il y a environ 10 ans. J'ai arrêté de voter, je n'en voyais plus l'utilité. Je n'accordais plus aucune confiance aux hommes politiques ou à leurs actions. Avec Marine Le Pen, j'ai recommencé à y croire [..] J'en ai marre que nous, électeurs du FN, on se fasse traiter de facho ou de raciste [..] Je ne suis pas raciste, je suis nationaliste. About 10 years ago I went through a period when I just rejected everything to do with politics. I did not vote because I did not see the use of it anymore. I no longer trusted any politicians or their actions. With Marine Le Pen, I started to believe again [..] I'm fed up of FN voters being pegged as fascist or racist [..] I'm not racist, I am a nationalist. The rise of the FN seems to stem from continued disenchantment with the declining economic status of France and the increasingly precarious situation of its lower class. An interactive infographic via Le Nouvel Observateur on the results of the 2014 European elections in France shows that FN came out on top for people earning less than 3,000 euros (about 4,500 US dollars) per month. On seneweb.com, “Diop” expressed gratitude for the opportunities given to his father in France and warned about the country's economy: Quand mon père est arrivé, il a débarqué du Galsen sans un franc en poche. Car il n'y avait pas l'euro à l'époque mais le franc français et il y avait du travail, il a pu faire sa vie, acheter une maison et les prix étaient beaucoup moins cher. Toute la merde actuelle c'est la faute à l'Europe. La France a été dans le top 3 mondial en continue pendant 600 ans avant l'intégration européenne puis l'euro. Aujourd'hui nous sommes 5ème et dans 50 ans d'après les prévision nous serons 8ème seulement. Il faut savoir dire stop quand on le peut encore. My father first arrived from Senegal without a franc in his pocket. As the euro didn't exist in those days, the currency was the French franc and there was work, he was able to make a life for himself, buy a house and prices were much lower. The shit we're in right now is Europe's fault. France was one of the top three global powers for 600 years until they joined the European Union and adopted the euro. Today we've been relegated to fifth place and according to predictions we'll be eighth in 50 years time. We have to know when to say “stop” while we still can. Nadir, who was born outside France, added in the Observatory of the Extremes in the Europe blog that he voted for the Front National because he felt they were more “real” : Le FN, c’est des gens comme nous. Ils sont proches de nous. Ils nous comprennent. Ils n’ont pas fait de grandes études. The FN is made up of people like us. They are close to us. They understand us. They have not attended elite universities. ‘Why are they voting against themselves?’ This isn't the first time the FN has drawn votes from people of migrant origins. In this article taken from Egalité et reconciliation (Equality and reconciliation, via the Swiss newspaper Le Matin), a group of girlfriends of North African origin explain why they became members of FN in 2011 prior to the 2012 presidential elections. Zoubida, about 50, wears a veil; she and Kheira share the same outlook on FN: Elles ne veulent plus, non plus, d’une immigration qui, selon elles, « profite » des aides sociales, qui applique la formule en trois points : « Les mamans sont les porteuses, la rue éduque, les allocations paient.