Leftists defeat Sarkozy’s conservatives

http://rawstory.com/2010/03/leftists...conservatives/


President Nicolas Sarkozy's party took a severe drubbing from French voters Sunday in nationwide regional elections that were his last big national test before he seeks re-election in 2012.

As polling stations closed, initial estimates gave Socialist-led opposition electoral alliances some 54 percent of the vote, Sarkozy's right-wing UMP 36 percent and the far-right National Front just under nine percent.

"It was obviously for us, a real defeat," said lawmaker Jean-Francois Cope, head of the UMP group in the French parliament.

If confirmed, the estimates -- based on samples of cast ballots by polling agencies -- leave Sarkozy's supporters in control of only one of France's 22 mainland regions, their right-wing stronghold of Alsace.