French Prime Minister Francois Fillon conceded defeat Sunday after his party - also that of President Nicolas Sarkozy - suffered a heavy blow in the second round of regional elections, according to dpa. According to projections by the CSA institute, the opposition Socialists and their allies received 56 per cent of the vote, compared to only 37 per cent for Sarkozy's conservative UMP, and 7 per cent for the far-right National Front. "The results confirm the success of the lists headed by the left. We were not able to convince the voters," Fillon said, shortly after the projections were made public. He went on to say that he assumed his responsibility in the defeat and would speak with Sarkozy on Monday. It is highly unlikely that the popular Fillon would take the blame for the defeat and be allowed to resign. A more likely consequence is a re-shuffle of the government that could see several left-wing ministers, such as Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, leave the government. While the vote confirmed tendencies from last Sunday's first round, it appears that the Socialists fell short of their goal of winning every one of France's 22 metropolitan regions. Projections show that the UMP will hold on to Alsace by a respectable margin. However, they appear to have lost their traditional stronghold of Corsica. The UMP could also take two of the four overseas regions, Guiana and La Reunion, but results there are always clouded by local politicking and have little relevance for national politics. If the figures are confirmed, it would represent one of the largest victories for the left in modern French history, and would propel Socialist Party head Martine Aubry into the front ranks of candidates for the 2012 national elections. She was able to forge an alliance with the pro-environment Europe Ecologie and the Left Front party, which includes the Communists, that the left hopes will be a model for 2012. Aubry called the results "an unprecedented victory for the unified left," and said they represented "a rejection of Sarkozy's policies ... which favoured the privileged at the expense of employment and the cost of living." Criticism is likely to be directed at the UMP's strategy for the week between the two electoral rounds, during which Sarkozy and Fillon campaigned on their strong stands on law and order. Proof that this did not work was the excellent result scored by right-wing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen, who received an estimated 22.5 per cent in the southern region of Provence-Alpes-Cote-D'Azur. But the issue that moved most voters was the economy, as French unemployment reached 10 per cent, and is likely to rise further. Polls show that nearly three of four French adults say Sarkozy's economic policies are not working. Voter turnout was estimated at 51 per cent, significantly better than for last Sunday's first round but well below the 60 per cent of the 2004 second round of regional elections.
