French voters set to punish Sarkozy in regional polls

FRANCE voted yesterday in regional polls forecast to punish Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling party, the last ballot-box test of his popularity ahead of the 2012 presidential election.

Voters struggling from the global economic slowdown are expected to give the governing UMP party a drubbing at the polls during the two-round vote held yesterday and on March 21. It is the first election in France since a year-long recession sent unemployment to its highest level in a decade, with nearly three million people out of work.

“I don’t think the national government is really tackling social welfare – in terms of jobs for example,” said Patricia Abela, a 41-year-old insurance worker, after voting for the Socialists in Paris.