High-quality prints of historic sites and events, cityscapes , sports venues and more.
PARIS - Voters resoundingly endorsed President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to overhaul the French economy, giving his party a commanding lead yesterday in the first round of elections for Parliament.
Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement won 39.6 percent of the vote, while the opposition Socialists had 24.7 percent, the Interior Ministry said.
Sarkozy's conservatives have a strong advantage heading into the decisive runoff next Sunday, on track to expand their absolute majority in the 577-seat National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. Control of the assembly is central to Sarkozy's agenda of tax cuts, labor reforms, and other plans to try to shake France out of its malaise.
The election sapped support from the fringes - including Jean-Marie Le Pen's once-influential extreme- right National Front and the Socialists' further-left allies - and leaves France facing a parliament tilted unusually to the right.
Turnout was less than 61 percent - low for France - which pollsters blamed on a lack of suspense. The UMP has been widely expected to win since Sarkozy's strong victory over Socialist Segolene Royal in the presidential election last month. The main question was how badly the once-powerful leftists would lose.
Socialists tried to rally backing for the second round, tapping fears of an all-powerful "Sarko state" if the president's camp gets a lopsided majority.
"There are crushing majorities that crush, dominant parties that dominate, absolute powers that govern absolutely," Socialist leader Francois Hollande said.
Sarkozy's backers say a convincing mandate is the only way to get the French, eager to strike and wary of globalization, to reform.
"We want to set off a shock wave of confidence, a shock wave of growth," a buoyant Prime Minister Francois Fillon said last night.
He laid out his agenda for change for the summer and autumn: reform of universities, making transport strikes less crippling, new anticrime measures, freeing the labor market and a plan to cut the large national debt.
Many outside the conservatives' circle dread the months to come. Labor unions and student groups stand ready to resist with the kind of mass protests that logjammed reforms by former President Jacques Chirac.
Francois Bayrou, the third-place finisher in the presidential vote, warned of a one-sided Parliament."One day, France will regret this lack of balance. It is not healthy," Bayrou said. His fledgling party, MoDem, won 7.6 percent.
MOST VIEWED IN THIS SECTION
MOST VIEWED ON PHILLY.COM
MOST EMAILED ON PHILLY.COM
Latest Stories in this Section
No comments:
Post a Comment