French legislative elections

Today there are legislative elections in France. Polls consider that Sarkozy’s party, UMP is going to win. But both Sarkozy and Fillon consider that, if UMP does not achieve 400 seats, the results will be not great. First numbers point to a record abstention: between 37% and 40%.

UPDATE: Victory of UMP: Sarkozy to extent majority ater legislative vote:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to tighten his grip on policy making after his Union for a Popular Movement won the first round of legislative elections.

Sarkozy’s UMP may win as many as 501 seats in the National Assembly, up from 359 now, in the second and final vote on June 17, Paris-based polling firm CSA forecast today in Le Parisien daily. The Socialist Party, with left-wing allies, may take as few as 62 in the 577-seat lower house of parliament. With all ballots counted, the UMP won 39.6 percent against the Socialists’ 24.7 percent, the Interior Ministry said.

“These elections could be a tsunami for the UMP and a triumph for Sarkozy,” said Gerard Grunberg, head of research at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris. “Voters have confirmed their presidential choice.” Sarkozy defeated Socialist Segolene Royal with 53.1 percent of the vote May 6.

In France they call it the ”blue vague“.

Results according to le Monde: 43,25% for UMP, 28,5% for the socialists. @import url(http://medias.lemonde.fr/mmpub/css/blog.css);

Législatives : les résultats nationaux
LEMONDE.FR | 10.06.07

©

According to projections, that would mean UMP has between 405 and 445 seats, when in the past term it had 359.

The real loser is Bayrou’s party.

This is the first round of the legislatives. We will have to wait for the 2nd tour for knowing what majority he effectively has.

Others commenting the French elections: Fausta who links to several blogs including No Pasarán (1, 2 y 3). Specially important to read is the no.3 link which is about BBC bias.

In Italian: The Right Nation.

The left is calling the people to vote massively on the next Sunday’s second tour as “France needs the left”, specially the young ones, who have contributed to the abstention highly.

Other news are that both the Front National (Le Pen) and the communists have crashed. FN had only 4% of the votes and will continue out of the Assamblée Nationale while the Communists can lose all their representation.