French President Nicolas Sarkozy is meeting his prime minister first thing today to work out a response to their conservative party’s crushing defeat in regional elections, a vote that informally kicked off the 2012 presidential race.

PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy’s party yesterday fought to recover from a first-round beating in French regional elections that also saw the far-right National Front surge back.

President Nicolas Sarkozy suffered a national beating by voters who took their frustrations over the economic crisis to the ballot box and clearly favoured his leftist challengers in regional elections.

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s governing conservatives trounced France’s Socialists in voting for the European parliament, while an ecology-minded party vaulted to a surprisingly strong third place, according to early official results.