Sarkozy's UMP wins smaller than expected majority

French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre right UMP party won a smaller than expected majority in the national assembly elections this weekend.

A projected majority of over 50 seats gives the new leader a clear mandate for sweeping reforms, but the result falls short of the predicted ‘tidal wave’ that would have seen the conservatives completely dominate parliament.

The result also threw up some nasty surprises for Sarkozy. Prominent senior conservative Alain Juppé lost to the socialists in Bordeaux, and another close aide of Sarkozy, Arno Klarsfeld, was beaten in eastern Paris.

Socialists hailed the result as a warning to Sarkozy that the French electorate did not want one-party domination, and that people were prepared to stand up to the right despite the demoralising defeat of Ségolène Royal in the presidential run-off last month.

Nonetheless, Sarkozy and the UMP were celebrating victory again today. This is the first time since 1978 that voters have returned an outgoing parliamentary majority to power.

Prime minister François Fillon said that the government would eradicate "the defeatism that is suffocating the republic".

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