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“A ROUT”, “A slap”, “A kick up the backside”: the headlines in France’s newspapers yesterday left President Francois Hollande in no doubt about the scale of his Socialist Party’s humiliation at the ballot box.After a “Black Sunday” that saw both the far-right National Front (FN) and the mainstream opposition make historic gains in nationwide local elections, Hollande was under intense pressure to react swiftly and decisively with a shakeup of his beleaguered government.
Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said Hollande was virtually certain to make a televised address to the nation, but there was no confirmation from the Elysee Palace, where a pack of reporters had gathered from early morning in keen anticipation of a ministerial bloodletting.
A scheduled meeting with popular Interior Minister Manuel Valls, widely tipped for promotion as a replacement for under-fire Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, was “postponed”. But Hollande did meet for two hours with Ayrault, government sources said.
The scale of the Socialists’ setback in the first electoral test since Hollande’s 2012 election was unprecedented.
Marine Le Pen’s FN, skilfully rebranded as more than just an anti-immigrant party, won control of 11 towns and more than 1,200 municipal seats nationwide, easily its best ever performance at the grassroots level of French government.
But even more worrying for Hollande and Co. was the strong showing of the mainstream Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). The party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy snatched a string of major towns that were once considered bastions of the left in a performance which, if repeated in national elections, would see them sweep back to power with ease in 2017.
The losses of Quimper in Brittany, where one of Hollande’s closest allies, Bernard Poignant, was booted out of the town hall, and Limoges, a stronghold of the left for over a century, were telling indicators of how the night went.
“This first test for Francois Hollande has been a veritable catastrophe. The Socialists’ gains from the last municipals in 2008 have been completely wiped out,” said Frederic Dabi of the Ifop polling institute.
UMP leader Jean-Francois Cope hailed as historic a “blue wave” that saw 155 towns of more than 9,000 residents switch from the left.
“I set the objective of taking control of 50 percent of towns with more than 9,000 inhabitants, we actually reached 62 percent,” he said.
“It is a historic score. It is not just the government lineup that has to change, it is the entire direction of the country.” — AFP.
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