Socialists triumph over Sarkozy's party in regional elections

Regional elections guide Left trumps Sarkozy's party Le Pen dynasty bounces back Web ignores ban on exit polls Press abuzz about Sarkozy's defeat Sarkozy, campaigner-in-chief The Algeria poster row France's political landscape Full coverage of the elections

France’s Socialists beat President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party in the first round of regional elections on Sunday in a contest that was marked by record-low voter turnout.

Final official results gave the opposition Socialists 29.48 percent of votes, with the UMP candidates tallying 26.18 percent. European Greens gathered 12.47 percent, ahead of the right-wing National Front’s 11.74 percent.

France’s Ministry of the Interior put the abstention rate at 53.65 percent, a record low for a regional election.

A coalition of the far left, the Left Front, won up to 5.7 percent of votes, bettering the centrist MoDem party, historically France’s third best vote-getter, which struggled to reach 4.24 percent on Sunday.

A second-round ballot will be staged March 21, with leading parties going forward to the conclusive vote, which will decide who runs France’s 26 regions.

A boost for French Socialists

The main parties Left: Socialist Party (PS), Greens (Europe Ecologie), Left Front, New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA, far left) Centre: Modem Right: UMP, National Front (FN, far right) Left-wing parties are set to join forces in most regions in the second round, and may court the Modem in a handful of regions. No such alliance is possible on the right, with the National Front likely to hurt the UMP’s chances wherever it reaches the second round.

Martine Aubry, first secretary of the Socialist Party, hailed “one of the highest scores in [its] history” and made direct overtures to the European Greens in anticipation of the second round.

Aubry said her party would work toward the largest possible left coalition and called voters to confirm Sunday’s results in a week’s time. Former Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal said that voters had inflicted a punishment vote on the government of Nicolas Sarkozy.

However, French Prime Minister François Fillon played down his party’s first-round defeat by the Socialists, citing the low turnout and insisting that regional elections had little bearing on overall national opinions of the government.

“The game is not over in the run-off in many regions,” Fillon said, as he called on supporters of the “presidential majority” to make a better showing on March 21.

In the run-up to Sunday’s elections, Sarkozy tried to downplay the importance of the vote as a referendum on his policies, saying it would have no impact on his reform drive. But the scale of the UMP’s loss could give the Socialists a huge boost after years of bitter infighting.

By Florence VILLEMINOT Green alliance Europe Ecologie has established itself as a third force in French politics.

Return of the far right

Another winner in the elections was far-right leader Jean Marie Le Pen’s National Front party. The National Front picked-up close to 12 percent, a score that keeps the controversial party in the running for the second round.

Its firebrand octogenarian appeared on television holding a campaign poster proclaiming “No to Islamism” and portraying the French territory dominated by the Algerian flag.

By Catherine VIETTE France's far right National Front roared back to life in Sunday's regional elections.

The poster was declared offensive in a court ruling in Marseille ahead of the poll.

“The National Front was declared beaten, dead, buried by the president," Le Pen said. "This shows that it is still a national force, and probably destined to become greater and greater.”