Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin faced an uncertain future yesterday after regional polls dealt a stinging blow to his center-right government hobbled by high unemployment and growing labor protest.
He also suffered a humiliating personal defeat, seeing the opposition Socialists sweep the Poitou-Charentes region he led for 14 years before becoming prime minister in 2002.
The mainstream left won 40 percent of the vote while the center-right slumped to 34 percent and the far-right National Front rallied a strong 17 percent protest vote.
"Bye-bye Raffarin," the left-wing daily Liberation wrote. The business daily Les Echos said: "There are strong chances that the days of the Raffarin government are numbered." France 2 television saw Raffarin and this government "in the hot seat."
Voting in France's 22 mainland and four overseas regions goes into the run-off round next Sunday with the left -- which ran about one-third of them before -- aiming to take up to half the regions, pollsters said.
The vote sent a warning to Paris over the high 9.6 percent unemployment and state spending cuts that have provoked strikes. It also prompted calls for votes against anti-immigrant leader Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front in the second round.
Raffarin somberly defended policies of trying to return Europe's second largest economy to more robust growth in a brief televised statement, but made no mention of any policy changes and said nothing about his own future.
"I have listened to the French people. Region by region ... the message has been expressed. I will take it into account," Raffarin, whose popularity has slumped in recent months, said in brief televised comments.
"We will take the necessary decisions for our future, for the future of our country, which will respond to the impatience but also the hopes of the French people."
The outcome was a big decline for the ruling parties from the parliamentary election in 2002, when the center-right won more than 43 percent of votes, the left secured a little over 37 percent and the National Front got just over 11 percent.
The regional vote has only a symbolic impact on the government, but Chirac could reluctantly remove his ally Raffarin in a cabinet reshuffle if the second round goes badly.
Political analysts said only a second round rout could prompt a U-turn on policies of privatization, deregulation and cost-cutting reforms, but the Cabinet could rethink the pace and depth of change in sensitive areas such as the health service.
The mainstream left hailed its resurgence after being swept from power in 2002. Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande said: "The people have made a big statement. And this statement is to punish the government's policies."
For its part, the National Front secured a repeat of its strong showing in the second round of the 2002 presidential election, when veteran leader Jean-Marie Le Pen won 17.8 percent of the votes and finished second to Chirac.
The party will contest 17 of the 26 regions in the second round run-offs, draining votes from the mainstream right.
Its success followed heightened fears over terrorism in France since the March 11 Madrid bombings and threats to blow up the French railway system by a shadowy group demanding money.
The National Front and the left cashed in on recent protests by teachers, hospital workers and researchers against moves to plug France's gaping public deficit and shrink its welfare state. Anger is also mounting over unemployment of 9.6 percent.
France's regions have less power than corresponding German states or Spanish provinces, but can decide on matters such as schools and transport.
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