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.