France's far-right National Front lost a local council election on Sunday in northern France, near Calais, after a campaign in which the country's governing center-right party urged voters to support the left rather than let the National Front into office. A victory for the National Front, whose candidates included Marine Le Pen, the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the party's leader, would have resulted in the first town hall of significant size to be run by the anti-immigration party. The town in question is Henin-Beaumont, in the former mining area of Pas de Calais, considerably north of the National Front's traditional stronghold. The town of about 26,000 people has high unemployment -- nearly 19 percent -- and the former Socialist Party mayor was forced to resign over accusations stemming from a corruption scandal. The National Front was ahead in the first round of voting, but with France's more conventional parties ganging up on it in the runoff on Sunday, the left-wing candidate Daniel Duquenne led a list that took 52.4 percent of the vote, compared with the National Front's 47.6 percent. In the first round, Duquenne had half the number of votes of the National Front, but he came in second, ahead of the Socialist Party candidate. A close aide to President Nicolas Sarkozy, Henri Guaino, said that 'the voters of Henin-Beaumont have chosen, and they have chosen well.' He also expressed pride that Sarkozy's party had supported the left in the runoff. Martine Aubry, the leader of the Socialists, said: 'I hear also the exasperation and anger expressed around this election. We must do everything to reunite again the forces of progress.' Le Pen, 40, is expected to take over the leadership of the National Front from her father, who is 81. A lawyer, she was recently re-elected to the European Parliament. The party had been in decline since the elder Le Pen reached the presidential runoff election in 2002, but the economic crisis, rising unemployment and increasing concern about illegal immigrants in the Calais area have bolstered the far right. 