No landslide but Sarkozy’s party dominates assembly

FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right allies won a solid majority in yesterday’s parliamentary election, but failed to secure a widely expected landslide, poll forecasts showed.

Polls by three leading research institutes said after a second and final round of voting that Mr Sarkozy’s bloc would win 341-350 seats in the 577-seat lower house against 202-210 for the Socialist party. Other leftist parties were seen winning under 20 seats.

Pollsters had predicted after the first round vote on June 10 that the ruling center-right would win up to 470 seats, but its popularity suffered a beating in recent days after ministers admitted they were considering a sharp hike to sales taxes.