Publication

In the second round of elections in France, Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) was defeated in 23 out of 26 regions in France. The Left (socialists, communists and ecologists) together won 56% of the vote, thereby leading to one of the worst election defeats of the neo-Gaullist Right in history. The election campaign and accompanying opinion polls also revealed another dangerous trend for the president. Sarkozy is much less popular than his hand-picked prime minister François Fillon, and the majority of French people would prefer the latter to represent the Right in 2012.