Nick Griffin MEP has congratulated the Front National’s Marion Le Pen on her breakthrough victory in France’s parliamentary elections on Sunday.

_{By Adam Walker}

Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, granddaughter of party founder Jean Marie Len Pen, was one of two Front National MPs elected in last week’s vote.

At just 22 years of age she becomes France’s youngest MP since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958, and the Front National’s first MP since 1997.

"I am happy to be the spokeswoman for a French youth that tomorrow will spearhead new hope in the shape of the Front National,’ she said following the result.

"If the elites listened, they would understand why the French youth, to which I belong, is joining our ranks.

"6.4 million French voters have already joined us [in presidential elections] and it's just the beginning."

Marion Le Pen, a law undergraduate, came top in her constituency in the south-eastern Vaucluse department with 49.09 percent of the vote.

She has promised to defend national identity, economic protectionism and social welfare during her five-year mandate.

The FN’s other new MP, lawyer Gilbert Collard, was elected in the nearby Gard department.

Mr Collard said his victory reflected exasperation over ill-controlled immigration.

"I will represent the voice of the people who are fed up," he said. "I will try to explain to the communities of immigrant origin that they must understand that they have a place in the fatherland on condition that they respect the fatherland."

There was further nationalist success elsewhere in Vaucluse, where FN-backed candidate Jacques Bompard received 58.77% of the vote, well ahead of Socialist runner-up Pierre Meffre on 41.23%.

The wins represent a breakthrough for the anti-euro FN, which returns to parliament after a dynamic presidential campaign by Marine Le Pen.

But there was a personal setback for the party’s leader, who lost by a mere 118 votes to local Socialist Philippe Kemel in the northern working class district of Henin-Beaumont.

"Beyond my personal case, we only have reasons to rejoice," Marine Le Pen told a cheering crowd in Henin-Beaumont. "The national movement is once again entering the National Assembly and that is an enormous success."

Marine Le Pen said the Front National’s absence from parliament would not have been legitimate after 6.4 million people voted for her in April’s presidential election.