Sarkozy fires Labour Minister following regional vote disaster

French President Nicolas Sarkozy planned a government reshuffle yesterday, after a humiliating defeat by the left in regional elections raised pressure on his reform programme.

Mr Sarkozy fired Labour Minister Xavier Darcos, in a key change as the increasingly unpopular President limbers up for sensitive pension reforms.

Labour unions have called strikes for today in dozens of towns and cities to protest over the pension plans, jobs, wages and the high cost of living.

Tensions also surfaced within the governing party, with former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin calling for a confidence vote on the President's reforms after the opposition Socialists roundly beat it in Sunday's vote.

Meanwhile supporters of one of Mr Sarkozy's most bitter rivals within the right, former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, said he would form a political party to challenge the President in 2012.

The second-round poll on Sunday left the ruling UMP party in charge of only one of the regions of mainland France and Corsica in the last ballot-box test of Mr Sarkozy's popularity before the 2012 presidential vote.

The results were "a big wake-up call for quick and effective action" to tackle unemployment and other effects of the economic crisis, Mr Gueant said.