(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) French Conservatives have largely won the local elections held here Sunday, with control of around two-thirds of France's 101 departments or local districts going largely to the Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) and its right-wing allies, exit polls showed.
The strong showing of the right wing is a clear victory for UMP leader and former president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, whose party, allied with the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), looks set to win between 64 and 70 departments, up from 41 they held going into the election.
"Tonight the republican right and the centre have clearly won the departmental elections," Sarkozy said in a victory speech, noting that "never before has the right taken so many departments." "The French people have massively rejected the policies of the Socialists and (President Francois Hollande)," Sarkozy added.
"The President of the Republic deliberately chose to ignore the message from the French people." The ruling Socialists and their left-wing allies look set to win between 30 and 37 departments or districts, well down from the 60 local districts they controlled before Sunday's ballot, the polls indicate.
The election is a crushing rejection of the policies of Socialist President Francois Hollande and sets the stage for a further defeat in regional elections at the end of this year.
In addition, it reinforces the campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy should he choose to challenge Hollande or another Socialist candidate in the next, crucial presidential election in 2017.
Beyond the traditional left-right parties, the extreme rightist National Front, which got 25 percent of ballots in the first round of this election a week ago, has failed to make major inroads locally and might get control of only one department out of 101 when the final results are known Monday.
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