June 11, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 25, 1428

PARIS, June 10: French conservatives were headed for a parliamentary landslide after elections on Sunday, bolstering President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to implement wide-ranging reforms.

A jubilant right said voters had decided to give Sarkozy the tools to carry out his pledge to boost growth and slash unemployment, but the left said a crushing right-wing majority threatened democracy.

Pollster CSA said Sarkozy's bloc would win between 440-470 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly lower house after a decisive second round of voting on June 17.

IPSOS Dell pollsters saw the centre-right taking 383-447 seats against 120-170 for the mainstream left.

“In the presidential election, the French people wanted to express their choice. Today they have confirmed the momentum of the presidential election,” said Labour and Social Affairs Minister Xavier Bertrand.

CSA gave the opposition Socialists, in disarray since the party's third straight loss in presidential elections in May, just 60-90 seats compared to the 149 seats the party won in 2002 elections. TNS Sofres gave the Socialists 100-140 seats.

“Come and vote, come for yourself, come for democracy, come for the Republic, come for France, come for social justice and come to help us reconstruct a new left,” said Segolene Royal, defeated Socialist presidential candidate.

“Each additional Socialist deputy is an additional voice for democracy,” added Socialist former finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn said. “In the Assembly, having 400, 450 right-wing deputies and a small number of left-wing deputies makes democratic debate impossible.”

BLUE TIDE: Sarkozy had told voters that without a strong parliamentary majority he could not implement his “revolution” of tax cuts, strike curbs and labour code changes designed to create jobs and lift growth.

Voter apathy accentuated the “blue tide” of support for the conservatives. Turnout slumped to 61 per cent, well below the 84 per cent who voted in May presidential elections won by Sarkozy, and a record low for parliamentary elections.

Sunday's vote also marked a watershed for the Communists, whose estimated 6-13 seats, half their previous number, would be their worst score in living memory.

Centrist Francois Bayrou, who has re-launched his centrists as the Democratic Movement (MoDems) after this strong third placing in last month's presidential vote, was set to pick up between 1 and 4 seats only. The centrists won 29 seats in 2002.

The Greens could yet lose all of their three seats while the far-right National Front was not expected to win any.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon won his seat outright in the Sarthe district west of Paris, but former prime minister Alain Juppe, the government number 2, faced a tougher fight against a Socialist in his Bordeaux fiefdom.

Eleven members of the government are up for election and Fillon has told them they will have to relinquish their cabinet posts if they lose.

Sarkozy's popularity has surged since beating Royal for the presidency, his ratings driven by his energetic image, a flurry of meetings with world leaders and a raft of policy announcements.

Sunday's election was the third time French voters have been called to the polls in less than two months and the seeming inevitability of a conservative victory made it hard for leftwing opponents of Sarkozy to mobilise their voters.

The Socialists have not been helped by a round of infighting and finger-pointing after Royal's defeat, which has distracted them from the legislative campaign.—Reuters