French Socialists struggle to halt Sarkozy's election sweep

Paris - President Nicolas Sarkozy's political opponents struggled on Tuesday to energize their campaign and prevent the French leader's rightwing party from winning a landslide victory in parliamentary elections.

Deeply divided, the main opposition Socialists suffered a blow when centrist leader Francois Bayrou rejected negotiations on forming an alliance ahead of the second round of voting on Sunday.

Segolene Royal, who lost to Sarkozy in last month's presidential election, had called Bayrou to try to tap into his voter base as the Socialists faced another potentially disastrous defeat in the elections.

"I will not give supporters any guidance on how to vote. I will not enter into these kinds of mechanics," Bayrou, whose Democratic Movement picked up 7.6 per cent of the national vote on Sunday, told RTL radio.

Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and its allies on the right took a commanding lead in the first round of voting on Sunday and were on course to win up to 501 seats in the 577-member National Assembly.

Of the 110 members of parliament that were elected in the first round, only one represents the Socialist Party.

A big victory for Sarkozy in the parliamentary elections would give him free rein to push through his bold programme of reforms to stimulate growth and bring down unemployment in the eurozone's second largest economy.

Sarkozy has promised to usher in broad reforms to give universities more autonomy, tighten immigration, make labour laws more flexible and reduce taxation.

But the stronger-than-expected showing in the first round of voting prompted fresh complaints from the left of a dangerous concentration of powers in the hands of the new leader.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon, one of the government's seven members to be elected on Sunday, said the UMP would not use its huge majority to silence the opposition.

"The opposition fears a blue wave: well, it will find in parliament a responsible majority, determined to renew the institutions, to give a voice to the silent majority and respect the opposition that represents millions of French people," Fillon told supporters at a rally late Monday.

The UMP had 359 seats in the outgoing parliament while the Socialists 149.

Participation in Sunday's vote was a record low at 60.5 per cent, with polls showing that more than half of young voters had stayed away, depriving the Socialists of support.

Royal, who remains the Socialist Party's most popular politician, angrily accused journalists on France 2 public television of bias following a report on embattled Socialist candidates in the parliamentary polls.

"Let me say that the report that you just aired is quite scandalous for all the candidates that you are announcing as having already lost, who are already defeated," said Royal, who is not running for a seat but has set her sights on the party leadership.

"This news programme shows once again that much remains to be done to ensure pluralism in the media and pluralism in politics," she said.

Results from the first round showed the Socialists and their allies ahead in 109 constituencies while the Communist Party, which had 21 seats, was leading in eight districts.

The Greens were on track to maintain their two seats in parliament while Bayrou's party could pick up two seats.

The far-right National Front was not expected to win any seats despite the fourth-place showing of leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in the presidential election, with some 10 per cent of votes.

Agence France Presse

Sarkozy party headed for landslide in French parliament

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy's rightwing party was headed for a landslide victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections that will give him free rein to push through his bold reform programme.

A month after Sarkozy defeated the Socialist Segolene Royal in the presidential election, his ruling UMP party and its allies were set to take between 420 and 463 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, according to the latest opinion poll.

The Socialists and their allies will get between 95 and 130 seats in Sunday's second round of voting, said the CSA-Cisco poll in Friday's Le Parisien newspaper.

Sarkozy, who took over from Jacques Chirac, plans to present a first raft of bills this summer to give universities more autonomy, tighten immigration, make labour laws more flexible and slash taxes.

He has already broken new ground by appointing the prominent Socialist Bernard Kouchner as foreign minister and Rachida Dati, a woman of north African origin, as justice minister.

Opinion polls show that a majority of French approve of his performance so far.

The opposition Socialists, in disarray after their third consecutive presidential defeat and their poor showing in the first round of voting last Sunday, have focussed their campaign on warning of an over-concentration of power if Sarkozy's party dominates parliament.

Deeply divided, the party suffered a further setback when centrist leader Francois Bayrou this week rejected Royal's offer of negotiations on forming an alliance to limit their losses in the second round.

Royal's overture to Bayrou also prompted a public spat with party leader Francois Hollande, her partner, whose opposition to an alliance was backed up in a vote by the party's top decision-making body.

The bitterest debate in the campaign this week was over the government's mooted plans to switch the financing of health care from payroll charges to higher sales taxes.

The Socialists accused Prime Minister Francois Fillon of aiming to finance tax breaks for the rich with money from ordinary workers.

Fillon retorted at an electoral rally in Paris late Thursday that the left "prefers to sacrifice the (nation's) general interest, rather than sacrifice a partisan position," because leading Socialists had earlier appeared to back a similar sales tax plan.

Sarkozy issued a statement late Thursday saying he would reject the sales tax hike if it reduced the purchasing power of French consumers.

The Communists, once France's biggest party, look set to fall from 21 seats to between 10 and 15 seats after Sunday's vote, according to the CSA-Cisco poll.

The new centre party Modem of third-placed presidential candidate Francois Bayrou can expect three at most, with a similar score for the Greens.

Due to the particularities of the voting system, Jean-Marie Le Pen's far-right National Front is expected, as usual, to win no seats despite having garnered 10 per cent of the vote in the May presidential election.

Participation in last Sunday's vote was a record low at 60.5 per cent, indicating the widespread feeling that last month's presidential election was the more important democratic moment.

The UMP had 359 seats in the outgoing parliament while the Socialists had 149 deputies.

Agence France Presse

Sarkozy gets reduced majority for reform campaign

Paris - President Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing party won a solid majority to launch his programme of reforms in France's legislative election Sunday, but failed to secure a widely predicted landslide.

His Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) won 314 seats in the 577-member National Assembly, 45 fewer than in the outgoing parliament, according to final official results. Another 22 seats went to the UMP's centrist allies.

Sarkozy's party had been expected to score a "blue wave" landslide after his stunning presidential election win over Socialist Segolene Royal in May. But the Socialist Party made a surprise comeback, jumping from 149 to 185 seats.

Turnout for the decisive second round vote was 59.99 per cent, far short of the near 85-per cent turnout in the April-May presidential vote.

In an embarrassing blow to Sarkozy, former prime minister Alain Juppe failed to win a seat in his Bordeaux stronghold and resigned as environment superminister and government number two.

Sarkozy, 52, had brought the 61-year-old Juppe back from political exile after his conviction in a party finance scandal and given him one of the most prominent portfolios in his right-wing government.

But Economy Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said the government had scored a "historic success" in becoming the first ruling party since 1978 to retain control of the National Assembly.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon said France had "made a clear and coherent choice" by giving Sarkozy "a majority to act."

"You voted for change, well that is going to be a reality. We will challenge the habits and taboos that hold our country back," Fillon said.

Socialist leader Francois Hollande highlighted gains made by his party, which had headed into the parliamentary vote demoralised by Royal's defeat and expecting a crushing right-wing victory.

"The blue wave that was predicted to come crashing down didn't happen," Hollande said, saying the result would spell more "diversity and pluralism" in parliament.

He said the result was the sign of voter unease with "unjust measures" planned by the government, including a possible a hike in value-added tax rates to fund healthcare costs.

But the Socialist gains were not expected to bury the party's problems after three successive defeats in presidential elections.

Even as they welcomed the better-than-expected showing, Socialists were jolted by the news that Royal and Hollande, her partner of nearly 30 years, had separated.

Royal accused Hollande of having an affair in interviews for a book to be released this week and asked that he no longer be described as her partner, though she did not specify when the break-up happened.

One month after taking over from Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy had sought a strong majority to back his campaign pledge to modernise French government, kickstart the economy and toughen up crime and immigration laws.

He has appointed a broad-based government in which prominent leftist Bernard Kouchner is foreign minister. He also named a first woman minister of north African origin, Rachida Dati, to the justice ministry.

A special session of the new parliament will open on June 26 to examine the first bills to reduce taxation, encourage overtime, grant universities more autonomy, tighten immigration and toughen sentences for repeat offenders.

The conservative Le Figaro called the results of Sunday's vote the "Yes, But of the French" to Sarkozy's reforms in the headline to its story.

"What happened yesterday was certainly not a defeat for Nicolas Sarkozy because Nicolas Sarkozy has a clear majority, but it certainly is a warning," wrote the paper.

Le Figaro said the gains made by the Socialists from the first round of voting one week ago "...is ample proof that if the French have adopted the idea of reform they aren't ready to accept those which haven't been amply considered..."

The left-wing Liberation was more dramatic about the Socialist gains.

"The Right-Wing Takes a Left Hook," screamed the daily's headline.

Other left-wing parties picked up 41 seats between them, with 15 going to the Communist Party and four to the Green Party.

The nationalist Movement for France took one seat, but the main far-right National Front won no seats.

Francois Bayrou, who formed a new centrist party to build on his strong third-place showing in the presidential elections, took one of three seats won by his Democratic Movement.

Agence France Presse