Sarkozy's chief of staff Claude Gueant told the daily La Croix newspaper: "There is no question of touching the general architecture of the government or the main positions before the beginning of next year."
However, he said there may be some "technical readjustments," without elaborating.
"The government needs to go faster, further and higher with its reforms," said UMP secretary general Patrick Devedjian.
The election outcome meant the UMP was left in charge of only three of France's 10 biggest cities and 41 out of 101 local administrative departments.
With 89 percent of the vote counted, official results showed parties of the left leading just slightly, with 48.7 percent of the overall vote, compared with 47.6 percent for the right.
Socialist former prime minister Laurent Fabius said the government was heading for "divorce" with the French electorate if it refuses to change its policies. He used a soccer metaphor to characterize Sunday's results, saying voters had given the government "a red card."
The municipal elections have less to do with party affiliation than other elections, and most voters say they cast their ballots based on local issues like parks, public transport and garbage collection. Yet the race was also a gauge of how the French rate Sarkozy's performance.
Bruno Marcandella, a computer engineer from Paris' Latin quarter, expressed dissatisfaction with the way Sarkozy handles "everything -- not just his personal life."
"I'm going to vote because I want my vote to count on a national level," he said.
RSS