Support for Sarkozy
June 11, 2007
One month after Sarkozy's presidential election victory over Socialist Segolene Royal, his UMP party and its allies were projected to win up to 501 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly.
Based on estimates after the close of polls, the Union for a Popular Movement and its centrist allies were predicted to secure 383-501 seats after next Sunday's run-off. The UMP holds 359 seats in the outgoing lower house.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon urged French voters to turn out en masse next Sunday to give his government "a majority to act."
"The drive is there, but it can only take shape through a large, coherent presidential majority, determined to move forwards," he said.
Riding high
Sarkozy's party has been riding high on the president's popularity since he came to power promising to revive France's ailing economy, control immigration and crack down on crime.
Two-thirds of the French think Sarkozy has done a good job in his short time in office, according to surveys.
Confident of an electoral triumph, Sarkozy has promised a special session of parliament in July to push through a raft of tax and job market reforms, a toughening of crime and immigration rules and more autonomy for universities.
Socialists fail to recover
In disarray following Royal's defeat, the main opposition Socialist Party (PS) faced the prospect of another humiliating ballot box drubbing.
Projections from polling firms showed the Socialists could lose more than half of their 149 seats.
In the worst case scenario it will sink to depths last plumbed in 1993, when it returned just 67 lawmakers, although other projections suggested it could win as many as 170 deputies.
Suffering from voter fatigue after the hard-fought presidential election -- and possibly distracted by fine weather and the French Open tennis final -- many voters did not cast ballots.
Turnout appeared headed for a record low of around 63 percent, down from 84 percent in the presidential election last month.
The Socialists, whose main campaign message has been to warn of a dangerous concentration of powers if there is too big a majority for the UMP, called for voters to turn out next Sunday to restore a balance of power.
Royal appealed to the 17 million voters who backed her presidential bid, saying: "I know why many of you did not come out to vote: there has been a kind of fatalism, they are sad, disappointed."
"The republic needs you, because the republic needs a great force of the left to watch over things," she pleaded.
Prospects were also bleak for the Communist Party, which was predicted to lose many of its 21 seats.
The new centrist MoDem party founded by third-placed presidential candidate Francois Bayrou was expected to win four seats at most.
Due to the particularities of the voting system, Jean-Marie Le Pen's far-right National Front was expected to win no seats despite being credited with five percent of the national vote.
Fillon's government Thursday unveiled details of an 11-billion-euro ($15-billion) master plan to "shock" the economy back to life, the first part of the president's reform drive.
Most candidates head for run-off
The prime minister -- who had warned cabinet members running for seats would have to give up their post if they were defeated -- was among the 75 UMP deputies elected in the first round.
Five other ministers won election in round one, while four headed into a run-off, but a question mark hung over the fate of the cabinet's number two, Environment Minister Alain Juppe.
Overall in the first round, the UMP took 39.54 percent of the vote, compared to 24.73 percent for the Socialist Party, according to definitive interior ministry figures.
MoDem got just 7.61 percent of the vote, far less than the 18.57 that Bayrou got in the presidential race.
The Communists and the National Front were neck-and-neck on 4.29 percent, with the right-wing party less than 300 votes ahead.
Any candidate who wins more than 50 percent in the first round wins the seat, but most are decided in a run-off.