Sarkozy suffers heavy defeat in French regional elections

PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy suffered one of the worst defeats of his political career in Sunday’s second round of regional elections.

According to projections by the CSA institute, the opposition Socialists and their allies received 56 percent of the vote, compared to only 37 percent for Sarkozy’s conservative UMP.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon admitted defeat shortly after the first projections were made public, saying: “The results confirm the success of the lists headed by the left. We were not able to convince the voters.”

He said that part of the reason was economic: “The global (economic) crisis did not make our task easy.”

Fillon said that he assumed his responsibility in the defeat and would speak with Sarkozy on Monday about consequences. An adviser for Sarkozy said late Sunday that Fillon would not he handing in his resignation but would be discussing “technical changes” to the government.

This could mean a reshuffle of the cabinet, with several left-wing ministers such as Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner leaving the government.

While the vote confirmed tendencies from the March 15 first round, the Socialists fell short of their goal of winning every one of France’s 22 metropolitan regions.

Projections show that the UMP will hold onto Alsace by a respectable margin. However, they appear to have lost their traditional stronghold of Corsica.

The UMP could take two of the four overseas regions, Guiana and La Reunion, but results there are always clouded by local politicking and have little relevance for national politics.

If the figures are confirmed, it would represent one of the largest victories for the left in modern French history, and would propel Socialist Party head Martine Aubry into the front ranks of candidates for the 2012 presidential elections.