As France's left-wing sympathisers headed to the polls to choose a Socialist candidate for president on Sunday (22 January), one constituency counted each vote with utmost care.
Henin-Beaumont, a blue-collar town of 26,000 people in the French north, was for decades a socialist stronghold until the far-right National Front (FN) gathered more votes there than all the other parties combined in 2014 municipal elections.
Since then, the far-right has used it a launch-pad for its bid t...
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