The victory, described as a "historical breakthrough" by French and foreign political experts alike.
While analysts are divided over the consequences of the right-wing eurosceptic party's victory, they seem to be in agreement over the causes: many voters are simply fed up with the ruling Socialists, and with the political establishment as a whole.
"The French people today believe that their country has become 'permeable' – that it no longer protects them as they would like," Christian Hutin, a National Assembly MP and member of the leftist-Gaullist Citizen and Republic Movement, told Sputnik.