FRANCE: President Jacques Chirac's ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) suffered a severe setback in the first round of regional elections yesterday.
According to exit polls, the left-wing alliance of socialists, greens and communists beat the UMP and the centre-right UDF by a score of 40.5 per cent to 34 per cent.
The poll is the first since presidential and legislative elections two years ago, and is regarded as the equivalent of a mid-term election.
Although the right may recover ground in the run-off on March 28th, it looks likely to lose several of the 14 of 22 mainland regions it now holds.
High unemployment, the unpopular reform of the pension system and unease about Muslim fundamentalism all contributed to the right's poor performance.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's job is now threatened and a cabinet reshuffle is likely within days. That 23 ministers are standing in the regional and partial departmental election is a measure of the importance the government attached to the poll.
Mr Raffarin last night suffered the humiliation of seeing Poitou-Charentes, over which he presided for 14 years, on the verge of falling to the left. The head of the socialist list, Ms Ségolène Royal, the companion of the head of the socialist party Mr Francois Hollande, won 47 per cent of the vote, compared to only 32 per cent for Mr Raffarin's UMP successor.
"This is a referendum against Monsieur Raffarin and his policies," said the green deputy Mr Yves Cochet. "This is punishment; it must be understood that way."
Mr Hollande was critical of right-wing leaders on TF1 television. "You let unemployment and poverty rise. Public services are disappearing."
The extreme-right National Front (FN) and spin-off MNR remain the strongest such movement in Europe, with 17.5 per cent of the vote. The extreme left made a poor showing of just under 5 per cent.
The FN will go to the run-off in 19 regions, a result which further strengthens the socialists.
"This proves that the FN vote is truly one of adherence, not just a protest vote," said Ms Marine Le Pen, the daughter of the party's founder and leader Mr Jean-Marie LePen, and the head of the FN list in the Paris region.
Mr Le Pen was disqualified as a candidate because he failed to establish a tax home in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region where he intended to stand.
Mr Le Pen shocked all Europe by beating the socialist candidate to the run-off in the 2002 presidential election. Mr Chirac won 82 per cent of the vote, promising to establish a government that would listen to its citizens. He vowed to "change politics". But yesterday, a majority of French voters showed their disappointment.
The abstention rate, long regarded as a measure of public disenchantment, fell for the first time in 15 years, from more than 42 per cent in the 1998 regional elections to 39.8 per cent.