Sarkozy takes drubbing in nationwide regional poll

President Nicolas Sarkozy's party took a severe drubbing from French voters yesterday in nationwide regional elections that were his last big national test before he seeks re-election in 2012.

As polling stations closed, initial estimates gave Socialist-led opposition electoral alliances some 54 per cent of the vote, Mr Sarkozy's right-wing UMP 36 per cent and the far-right National Front just under nine per cent.

"It was obviously for us, a real defeat," said lawmaker Jean-François Cope, head of the UMP group in the French parliament.

If confirmed, the estimates - based on samples of cast ballots by polling agencies - leave Mr Sarkozy's supporters in control of only one of France's 22 mainland regions, their right-wing stronghold of Alsace.

Meanwhile the left, dominated by Martine Aubry's Socialist Party, kept its hold on the mainland, French Guyana and the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

The tight race in Corsica was too close to call.

The UMP's sole consolation was taking the Indian Ocean island of Reunion in the vote, which was to elect the regional councils that are in charge of transport, education and cultural policy.

Turnout was low, although around four percent higher than in last week's first round. Polling agencies TNS-Sofres and OpinionWay separately predicted that the second round abstention rate would be 49 per cent.

Last week's first-round vote saw the French leader's right-wing supporters win their lowest share of the vote in more than three decades. The party's final score improved, but it remained way behind the opposition.

Mr Sarkozy, whose UMP party still has a comfortable majority in the national parliament, has insisted that the regional poll is not a verdict on central government, but he is expected to order a reshuffle in the next few days.

The result was another blow to a president whose personal approval ratings are at an all-time low and will likely increase pressure within his own party for a change of direction.

One report, in the pro-government daily Le Figaro, suggested Prime Minister François Fillon would offer his government's resignation today but that Mr Sarkozy would ask him to form a new, slightly modified Cabinet.