French voters last night delivered a setback to Nicolas Sarkozy's hopes of a complete domination of the political scene. The rightwing president won a smaller than expected majority in the French national assembly, but still has a clear mandate for his sweeping economic reforms.

A surprise surge by the Socialists stemmed the conservative "tidal wave" predicted to totally dominate parliament and dealt Mr Sarkozy a severe blow by knocking out one of his most important senior ministers, Alain Juppé.

Article continues The emergence of a strong leftwing parliamentary opposition marked the first political hiccup for the reformist president who swept to power last month and has been basking in record popularity.

In the biggest embarrassment, Mr Juppé, who had been considered the third most important man in Mr Sarkozy's cabinet, was beaten by Socialists in his former fiefdom of Bordeaux. The former prime minister had been invited into the cabinet following a break from politics after his conviction in a party financing scandal. Mr Sarkozy had appointed him to head an environmental super-ministry. Last night Mr Juppé said he would resign.

France was reeling last night from a double political shock. The defeated presidential candidate, Ségolène Royal announced that she had ended her 27-year relationship with the Socialist party leader, François Hollande.

The announcement came just after the French people rebuffed President Nicolas Sarkozy, denying him the landslide victory that he had confidently expected in the French parliamentary elections.

Mme Royal, 53, chose the end of the long French electoral season to confirm dramatically the persistent rumours of a rift in her long, unmarried relationship with M. Hollande. She said that she had "asked him to leave the home" and that she would be a candidate to replace him as the Socialist Party first secretary next year. The couple have four children, aged 15 to 24.

In a book to appear on Wednesday, Mme Royal will, in effect, confirm rumours that M. Hollande has been in a relationship with another woman. "I have asked François Hollande to leave the family home and to continue alone the romantic life, which will now be plastered all over the books and newspapers. I have wished him every happiness," Mme Royal says in the book, Corridors of a defeat, by Christine Courcol and Thierry Masure.

The announcement came just as M. Hollande and the Socialist Party were celebrating a relative triumph in the second round of the parliamentary elections.

President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday night won a solid parliamentary majority to push through his reform agenda, in spite of a surprise rebound by France's opposition Socialists who had stoked last-minute fears of the government's tax-raising plans.

The ruling centre-right UMP and its allies had a re­duced majority, with 346 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, according to Interior Ministry figures. Even so, this is the first time a sitting government has been returned to office since 1978.

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The Socialist party and its allies performed far better in the second round than polls had forecast and increased their parliamentary representation to 231 seats.

PARIS: The conservative party of President Nicolas Sarkozy won a solid victory in parliamentary elections Sunday but failed to secure the rout of the left that polls had predicted.

In a sign that the left is alive and well in France, three polling institutes estimated that Sarkozy's governing Union for a Popular Movement and allies would win 318 to 323 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. The polling groups projected that the Socialists would win 206 to 212 seats.

That outcome reflected a net gain of seats for the left and a net loss for the right. Sarkozy's party had 359 seats in the outgoing National Assembly, while the Socialists had 149.

In the most high-stakes contest, Alain Juppé - Sarkozy's head of a new high-profile mega-ministry for the environment, transportation and energy, and also the mayor of Bordeaux - lost to a Socialist. He announced that he would step down as minister, effectively the No. 2 position in the government, a humiliating setback for the Sarkozy government.

107 women (vs 76 previously)
61 from the left (out of 228 - 27%)
49 PS (out of 190 - 26%)
46 on the right(45 UMP)(out of 349 - 13%)

Better, but not great, and it shows that the ability to evade the parity law (which imposes 40% of candidates at least for each sex but can be circumvented by fines) is still high.


In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes