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.

French voters set to punish Sarkozy in regional polls

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.

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