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The conservative party of President Nicolas Sarkozy won a solid victory in parliamentary elections on Sunday, but in a surprise, it failed to trounce the opposition on the left the way both the polls and politicians had predicted.
In a sign that the left is alive and well in France, there was a net gain of seats for the Socialists and a net loss for Mr. Sarkozy’s governing Union for a Popular Movement in the 577-seat National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament.
Mr. Sarkozy’s party won 314 seats, a loss of 45 members; the Socialists won 185 seats, a gain of 36, according to Interior Ministry figures issued early Monday morning.
In the most high-stakes contest, Alain Juppé, Mr. Sarkozy’s minister of a new high-profile mega-ministry for the environment, transportation and energy and the mayor of Bordeaux, lost to a Socialist. As required, Mr. Juppé will step down from what is the No. 2 position in the government, a humiliating setback for Mr. Sarkozy.
In a less important but symbolic defeat for the conservatives, Jean-Louis Bruguière, who had earned a global reputation as France’s leading antiterrorist investigative magistrate, also lost to a Socialist.
There was also high drama of a more personal sort. Ségolène Royal, the defeated Socialist candidate for president, and François Hollande, the father of their four children and the leader of the Socialist Party, have separated, according to a book to be published next Wednesday.
“I asked François Hollande to leave our home, to pursue his love interest, which is now laid bare in books and newspapers, on his own,” she is quoted as saying, adding, “I wished him happiness.”
In the book, “Behind the Scenes of Defeat,” Ms. Royal said that she and Mr. Hollande “remain on good terms.” She also said that she will seek to replace Mr. Hollande as leader of the party.
Following the disclosure, Mr. Hollande issued a communiqué confirming the separation, which had been rumored for some time.
The latest development in the Royal-Hollande saga became public only after polls closed and did not seem to be a factor in the election.
The victory by the “blue wave,” as the political power of the Sarkozy forces has been called, was the first time in 29 years that a governing party had retained its majority in the lower house of Parliament.
Both the left and the right claimed to have triumphed. “The French people showed they did not want to give all of the power to Nicolas Sarkozy,” said former Justice Minister Élisabeth Guigou, a Socialist.
But Prime Minister François Fillon congratulated voters for their “clear and coherent choice, which will allow the president of the republic to implement his project.”
Certainly, the outcome gives Mr. Sarkozy the mandate to push through his ambitious program to cut taxes, strip some labor protections, slash unemployment, impose curbs on immigration and make France more competitive economically. But psychologically, the Sarkozy government may lose some momentum.
Parliament, consisting of a National Assembly and a largely symbolic Senate, does not enjoy nearly the same authority as the American Congress does in serving as a counterweight to the presidency. In the period before the vote, the Socialists and other parties of the left had warned that a consolidation of power behind Mr. Sarkozy would be potentially dangerous for democracy in France.
Mr. Hollande attributed the stronger-than-expected showing of the left to what he called the “first unfair measures of the government.” He cited a much-criticized proposal to increase the value-added tax on goods and services and another to curb reimbursements for medical care.
In separate comments, former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who belongs to Mr. Sarkozy’s party, admitted that popular fear of the extra tax as well as of the party’s “blue tsunami” had eroded support.
In one month since assuming office, Mr. Sarkozy has shown signs of wanting to expand the power of the presidency, usurping some functions carried out by the prime minister.
He has ordered a special summer session of the new Parliament, when much of the country is on vacation and not inclined to protest in the streets, to immediately consider his first set of bills on taxes, labor rules, universities, immigration and crime.
In foreign affairs, Mr. Sarkozy has several proposals: for the crisis in Darfur, the moribund European constitution, the fate of Kosovo, climate change. At the recent Group of 8 meeting in Germany, he appeared confident, even cocky, in meetings with other heads of state, lecturing Britain’s departing prime minister, Tony Blair, about why he was not more popular and musing with President Bush about the 2008 presidential race in the United States.
Despite a sizable increase in the number of women who will serve as representatives, the new National Assembly will remain overwhelmingly male, white and middle-aged.
The new Democratic Movement Party of François Bayrou, the centrist who came in third in the first round of the presidential election, won only three seats, down from 29.
In a sign that the left is alive and well in France, there was a net gain of seats for the Socialists and a net loss for Mr. Sarkozy’s governing Union for a Popular Movement in the 577-seat National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament.
Mr. Sarkozy’s party won 314 seats, a loss of 45 members; the Socialists won 185 seats, a gain of 36, according to Interior Ministry figures issued early Monday morning.
In the most high-stakes contest, Alain Juppé, Mr. Sarkozy’s minister of a new high-profile mega-ministry for the environment, transportation and energy and the mayor of Bordeaux, lost to a Socialist. As required, Mr. Juppé will step down from what is the No. 2 position in the government, a humiliating setback for Mr. Sarkozy.
In a less important but symbolic defeat for the conservatives, Jean-Louis Bruguière, who had earned a global reputation as France’s leading antiterrorist investigative magistrate, also lost to a Socialist.
There was also high drama of a more personal sort. Ségolène Royal, the defeated Socialist candidate for president, and François Hollande, the father of their four children and the leader of the Socialist Party, have separated, according to a book to be published next Wednesday.
“I asked François Hollande to leave our home, to pursue his love interest, which is now laid bare in books and newspapers, on his own,” she is quoted as saying, adding, “I wished him happiness.”
In the book, “Behind the Scenes of Defeat,” Ms. Royal said that she and Mr. Hollande “remain on good terms.” She also said that she will seek to replace Mr. Hollande as leader of the party.
Following the disclosure, Mr. Hollande issued a communiqué confirming the separation, which had been rumored for some time.
The latest development in the Royal-Hollande saga became public only after polls closed and did not seem to be a factor in the election.
The victory by the “blue wave,” as the political power of the Sarkozy forces has been called, was the first time in 29 years that a governing party had retained its majority in the lower house of Parliament.
Both the left and the right claimed to have triumphed. “The French people showed they did not want to give all of the power to Nicolas Sarkozy,” said former Justice Minister Élisabeth Guigou, a Socialist.
But Prime Minister François Fillon congratulated voters for their “clear and coherent choice, which will allow the president of the republic to implement his project.”
Certainly, the outcome gives Mr. Sarkozy the mandate to push through his ambitious program to cut taxes, strip some labor protections, slash unemployment, impose curbs on immigration and make France more competitive economically. But psychologically, the Sarkozy government may lose some momentum.
Parliament, consisting of a National Assembly and a largely symbolic Senate, does not enjoy nearly the same authority as the American Congress does in serving as a counterweight to the presidency. In the period before the vote, the Socialists and other parties of the left had warned that a consolidation of power behind Mr. Sarkozy would be potentially dangerous for democracy in France.
Mr. Hollande attributed the stronger-than-expected showing of the left to what he called the “first unfair measures of the government.” He cited a much-criticized proposal to increase the value-added tax on goods and services and another to curb reimbursements for medical care.
In separate comments, former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who belongs to Mr. Sarkozy’s party, admitted that popular fear of the extra tax as well as of the party’s “blue tsunami” had eroded support.
In one month since assuming office, Mr. Sarkozy has shown signs of wanting to expand the power of the presidency, usurping some functions carried out by the prime minister.
He has ordered a special summer session of the new Parliament, when much of the country is on vacation and not inclined to protest in the streets, to immediately consider his first set of bills on taxes, labor rules, universities, immigration and crime.
In foreign affairs, Mr. Sarkozy has several proposals: for the crisis in Darfur, the moribund European constitution, the fate of Kosovo, climate change. At the recent Group of 8 meeting in Germany, he appeared confident, even cocky, in meetings with other heads of state, lecturing Britain’s departing prime minister, Tony Blair, about why he was not more popular and musing with President Bush about the 2008 presidential race in the United States.
Despite a sizable increase in the number of women who will serve as representatives, the new National Assembly will remain overwhelmingly male, white and middle-aged.
The new Democratic Movement Party of François Bayrou, the centrist who came in third in the first round of the presidential election, won only three seats, down from 29.
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