FRANCE: The government has suffered a defeat in regional elections, but is hoping to do better in next Sunday's second round, writes Lara Marlowe in Paris.
The French right yesterday blamed its defeat in the first round of regional elections on the difficulty of carrying out reforms in France, and vowed to mobilise for the March 28th runoff.
This election of 1,879 regional councillors has great symbolic importance, as proof of widespread dissatisfaction with Mr Chirac and his two-thirds parliamentary majority. But the right will continue to govern France for another three years. Regional prerogatives are feeble in France, compared to most EU countries, with councillors mainly involved in the running of secondary schools.
Both President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin have fallen in popularity in recent weeks, with 61 per cent of French people saying they are dissatisfied with Mr Raffarin and 49 per cent unhappy with the president.
The recent conviction on corruption charges of Mr Alain Juppé, the head of Mr Chirac's UMP party, economic stagnation and movements which have brought teachers, entertainers and scientists into the streets to protest at the decline in government funding, all contributed to Sunday's protest vote. The right scored only 34.96 per cent, compared to 40.31 per cent for the socialist-led left.
Though his party was the main victim of the mobilisation of the left and extreme right, Mr Chirac said: "I observe that for the first time in a long time, the number of voters increased. I am delighted. It's good for democracy."
Voter turn-out rose 4.18 per cent compared to the previous regional elections in 1998, with 62.18 per cent of eligible voters participating. This confuted pollsters who widely predicted unprecedented abstention as a result of disillusionment with politics.
The social affairs minister Mr Francois Fillon said the right's poor score was to be expected "because we made a lot of reforms". No one in the government has suggested a change of policy, and the most difficult reforms, of the health and social security systems, are still to come.
Prime Minister Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin said the left "made a caricature" of his policies during the campaign, and vowed to spend this week fighting an erroneous image.
It is not uncommon for French voters to change course in the second round, and the government is praying for a change of heart before next Sunday. If not, the left looks set to take the regions of Poitou-Charentes, Brittany, Burgundy, Languedoc-Roussillon, France-Comté and Picardy, giving the socialists a majority of French regions.
Mr Raffarin said he "heard the message" sent by voters, but at the same time he promised to accelerate reforms.
Depending on the results of the runoff, it may be, as Libération titled its editorial "Bye-bye Raffarin".
The leading candidates to replace him are Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, the popular interior minister, followed by Mr Dominique de Villepin, the foreign minister.
For the socialist party, Sunday's vote represented nothing short of resurrection after Mr Lionel Jospin's surprise defeat in the first round of the presidential election two years ago.
The socialists benefited from the eclipse of the extreme left Trotskyists and Communist Revolutionary League. Left-wing voters this time heeded pleas to "vote useful".
The next challenge for the socialists will be to find a charismatic leader.
Mr Jospin remains far more popular than Messrs. Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Laurent Fabius, who have declared themselves presidential candidates for 2007.
With 16.61 per cent of the vote, the extreme right proved that it has become a lasting feature of French political life.
A few years ago, such a score would have raised an outcry. Today it is considered almost normal.