"Blue wave" crashes for Sarkozy

[Theobald]

'Blue wave' crashes for Sarkozy

After the wave of euphoria that swept through the UMP and its supporters following Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential victory in France, it seems as if the predicted "blue wave" in parliament has failed to materialise.

The new president will still have an absolute majority in the National Assembly, but it looks like being far from the crushing victory the opinion polls had forecast.

The result, if confirmed, could have a direct effect on how Mr Sarkozy approaches his reform programme.

He had hoped to put before parliament a wide range of measures before the summer recess: to encourage people to work more, to give universities more autonomy, to tighten the rules on immigration.

But the new parliament may not be the Sarkozy steamroller many had talked about.

'No tsunami'

Already the prime minister, Francois Fillon, has said the government will seek consensus and dialogue as it sets about implementing its programme.

The abstention rate was higher than during the first round - fewer than 60% appear to have turned out to vote.

That seems to have damaged the right more than the left - the Socialists, in some disarray beforehand, had feared the worst. Segolene Royal had talked of a "blue tsunami".

The Socialists have lost this election - but they have not suffered the annihilation that many had been predicting.

The UMP won 314 seats in the 577-member assembly, while the Socialists won 185. Voter turnout was low, at about 60%.

However, a major blow for the UMP was the defeat of former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, who was made energy and environment minister in the new government after Mr Sarkozy's election.

Mr Juppe said he would offer his resignation. Mr Sarkozy has insisted that any minister would have to leave the government if they failed to be elected.

[Theobald]

My main satisfaction : the Israeli soldier and war criminal Arno Klarsfeld has been clearly defeated. We won't have any Tsahal veteran in the French National Assembly.

And Marine Le Pen, the only FN member who could have been elected, though she was defeated as well, still got 44% of the votes. A very good and promising result in 2007 France.