France's political parties began horse-trading today to make the best of municipal elections that should give the left victory in Paris for the first time in 130 years.
But the result sent mixed signals elsewhere around the country.
Yesterday's poll failed to produce the "red wave" that Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's Socialists had hoped for and gave some stinging reprimands to cabinet ministers who had tried to win a second job as a mayor somewhere as well.
Conservative candidates held their own outside Paris, especially where they were the incumbents, so the rival camps should go neck-and-neck into next Sunday's run-off if they can overcome internal rivalries and present united fronts.
Politicians are closely watching the municipal vote as a preview of next year's legislative and presidential polls when Mr Jospin will almost certainly challenge conservative President Jacques Chirac.
In Paris - the biggest prize among the 36,615 mayoral seats being contested - the triumphant Socialists and Greens hammered out a deal at daybreak that should lead them next week to their first victory in the capital in over a century.
"The right is doing badly at the top," said Socialist Party chairman Francois Hollande, referring to Paris, "but it didn't fare too badly lower down."