"Blue Wave" Sweeps French Polls

The UMP won 45.5 percent in the first round of voting Sunday, compared with 39 percent for the opposition Socialists

"It's not so much a blue wave as a blue tsunami," said the popular daily Le Parisien, using the official color of the Popular Movement (UMP).

The UMP won 45.5 percent in the first round of voting Sunday, June 10, for a new National Assembly, compared with 39 percent for the opposition Socialists.

If the trend continues in next Sunday's second round, it will have a landslide majority of possibly up to 501 seats in the 577-member lower chamber.

Estimates show that the Socialist Party was projected to win 60-170 seats after Sunday's runoff.

The Democratic Movement of Centrist Francois Bayrou, third in last month's presidential elections, got just 7.61 percent of the vote.

Turnout in the first round was around 63 percent, down from 84 percent in the presidential polls.

Mandate

The results were seen as a clear mandate for Sarkozy and his governing party to pursue promised reforms.

"After a gap of five weeks, the public have confirmed their presidential vote," said Le Parisien.

"They have shown no interest in power-sharing between left and right. On the contrary, they have given Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon a large majority to put their promises into action."

French media attributed Sunday's sweeping victory of the UMP to Sarkozy's new style.

"The success of the UMP is without precedent in the Fifth Republic," said the conservative daily Le Figaro.

"Never has a party garnered some 43 percent of the ballot in the first round of a legislative election," said the daily in a front page report entitled "The Sarkozy Dynamic."

The UMP has been riding high on Sarkozy's popularity since he came to power promising to revive France's ailing economy, control immigration and crack down on crime.

Two thirds of the French think Sarkozy has done a good job in his short time in office, according to surveys.

White House

The final results of the first round showed that no candidate of immigrant background had won.

Only eight such candidates, including four on the UMP's slate and three Socialists, made it to the run-off.

Any candidate who secures more than 50 percent in the first round wins the seat, but most are decided in a run-off.

Many of the immigrant candidates failed even to cruise to the second round including former equal opportunities minister Azouz Begag and Nagat Belgassem, the former spokeswoman for defeated Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal.

Independent candidate Malika Ahmed and Hassan Abdel-Salam of the Democratic Movement also failed to move to the second round.

Absent from the corridors of executive and legislative powers for decades, France's black minority had hoped the new blood running into today's politics would see one of their candidates winning a seat in the parliamentary polls.

There are currently 10 black deputies in the outing legislature, all from French overseas territories in the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean.

Among the 555 elected in mainland France, there is not a single black legislator.