When Emmanuel Macron's election victory flashed on TV screens mounted in the main polling station of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen's stronghold of Henin-Beaumont in northern France, there was anger and disappointment etched on the faces of her supporters.

In this former coalmining town in northern France, where unemployment runs high and the town hall is controlled by Le Pen's (above) party, there had been strong hopes that the far right would this time break through the glass ceiling that has kept it out of power...