Results from the first round of legislative elections yesterday indicate that France's new right-wing president, Nicolas Sarkozy, will obtain an overwhelming, unprecedented majority in the National Assembly in the run-off next Sunday.
Mr Sarkozy's UMP party received 45.8 per cent of the vote in the first round - an absolute record in France - compared to 36.6 per cent for the socialists, communists and greens, and 7.4 per cent for François Bayrou's new centrist party, the MoDem, according to estimates by the TNS-Sofres polling institute.
Jean-Marie Le Pen's extreme right-wing National Front received 4.6 per cent, and the extreme left 3.3 per cent. The remaining votes went to very small parties and independents.
But the electoral system is skewed in such a way that Mr Sarkozy looks certain to attain his goal of more than 400 of 577 seats in the National Assembly. The right is expected to win between 405 and 445 seats, the left between 120 and 160 seats, and the MoDem between one and four.
In a televised address after results were announced, prime minister François Fillon, who has led the legislative campaign on behalf of Mr Sarkozy, said: "The momentum is there. But it can take concrete form only with a large, coherent presidential majority . . . I ask the French for a majority, to enable me to take action."
Last night's results "confirmed [ the French people's] will to give direction to France", Mr Fillon said. "A huge, popular hope is born. It is a hope of breaking with the failures of the past, of liberating the country from its inertia and scepticism."
The prime minister vaunted the gender parity within his cabinet, the inclusion of a key minister from the north African Arab minority and ministers from the left and centre.
"This is a political revolution that is destined to overcome futile divisions," he said. "We want to create a shock of confidence and growth."
Left-wing politicians appealed to voters to turn out in greater numbers next Sunday, but their heart did not seem to be in it. At 39.5 per cent, the abstention rate was the highest since 1958. Ségolène Royal, the failed socialist presidential candidate, appealed to the 17 million French people who voted for her on May 6th. "It is up to them to come out to vote, so there can be some balance," she said.
"I know why a certain number of you didn't vote. There is a sort of fatalism. People are sad and discouraged. Democracy needs a strong force on the left." François Hollande, Ms Royal's companion and the leader of the Socialist Party, said the right had done everything it could "to demobilise the French, to let them think there was no point in voting". The young and poor had been the most vulnerable to abstention, he added.
All those who care about the right to work, social protection and public services must vote next week, Mr Hollande continued. He accused Mr Sarkozy of intending to raise Vat after the election.
"There are crushing majorities that crush, dominant parties that dominate, absolute powers that govern in an absolute fashion," he warned.