Val says it is not a simple picture, a narrow win in a key by election, with the UMP candidate knocked out.
France's ruling Socialists on Sunday narrowly won a key by-election, beating the far-right National Front candidate in what was President Francois Hollande's first major ballot test since the Paris attacks.
The by-election was called after Socialist lawmaker Pierre Moscovici left for Brussels to take office as Economic Affairs Commissioner. Montel, 45, had come first in the initial round last Sunday with close to a third of the vote. Barbier, 54, had come second and the main opposition right-wing UMP candidate was knocked out of the race. Worried, UMP leader and former president Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Tuesday of a real risk of the National Front taking power at a national level in the future.
His party called on its supporters to abstain from voting for either candidate on Sunday. More on this report in the Local