Setback for Sarkozy as left sweeps to victory in local polls

President Nicolas Sarkozy kisses his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy as they leave the Élysée Palace for him to vote in municipal elections in Paris. The left is now in charge of most big French cities, putting pressure on Mr Sarkozy to change his policies.
Photograph: Reuters

FRANCE: THE SOCIALIST Party won the second round of French municipal elections yesterday, but left and right disagreed on the extent of the defeat and its meaning for President Nicolas Sarkozy and the right-wing UMP.

National power still resides with the right, which holds the executive and legislative branches of government. But local and regional power are in the hands of the socialists, who now hold a majority of towns and cities, departments and regions.

Absentions, at close to 35 per cent, reached a record high.

The socialists had already taken Paris and Lyons in 2001, and won those cities again in the first round on March 16th. Last night Toulouse fell to the left. The only consolation for the right was the re-election of Jean-Claude Gaudin in Marseilles.

François Bayrou, the centrist candidate who won 18 per cent of the vote in last year's presidential election, was defeated in Pau. As long as there is no strong centrist party in France, the country will swing back and forth between left and right, he predicted.

The left also took Strasbourg, Reims, Amiens, Angers and Perigueux. The socialist candidate Lyne Cohen-Solal won the highly symbolic 5th arrondissement of Paris from the incumbent right-wing mayor, Jean Tiberi, a former mayor of Paris and an elected official in the 5th district for more than 40 years.

Mr Sarkozy kept a low profile between the two rounds of the election, sending the more popular prime minister François Fillon to support right-wing candidates. In his only statement about the elections, Mr Sarkozy acknowledged defeat in advance, saying, "The people will have spoken. I will naturally take account of what they will have expressed."

Mr Fillon argued that the government should not cave in on reforms, despite the beating at the ballot box. In a televised speech after the first results were announced last night, Mr Fillon said the left had "partially recovered" from its poor showing in the 2001 election. "It is ill-advised to draw national lessons from these local elections," he said.

The socialists had called on voters to punish the government for Mr Sarkozy's policies. "The most important quality of a political leader is lucidity," said the former socialist prime minister Laurent Fabius. "This evening is an extremely heavy defeat for the majority . . . One cannot deny the national dimension . . . If the government is lucid and honest, it must re-orient its policies."

Mr Fillon said it was important "not to mix everything up" and maintained that voters chose the government's policies in last year's presidential and legislative elections, which the right won. "We are going to continue these policies because we need tenacity to reform our country and because respect for democracy demands that we respect our commitments," he said.

Ségolène Royal, who lost last year's presidential election to Mr Sarkozy, called on the government to renounce the "fiscal shield" which sets a 50 per cent ceiling on income tax, as well as minimal charges for health care established by Mr Sarkozy.

Contrary to earlier predictions, Mr Sarkozy will not reshuffle his cabinet but will make minor "adjustments" to his policies. He has sacked his spokesman, David Martinon, who will become French consul in New York, and he will create new ministries, including one to study plans for a "greater Paris", incorporating some suburbs into the capital.

François Hollande, the leader of the socialist party, said that the "first reshuffle the president must do is to reshuffle himself". Though an in-depth reassessment of policies is out of the question, Mr Sarkozy has begun changing his style. In an attempt to appear more "presidential", he no longer wears Ray-Bans or clunky watches.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times