Socialists poised to take Paris from right

French socialists today moved into position to wrest Paris from the right in the first round of municipal elections but failed to carry the country as polls had predicted.

A sounding by the CSA polling firm showed the right ahead in some 48% of the more than 36,500 districts around the country, compared to 42% for the left.

Lyon, a rightist bastion like Paris, and Toulouse promised tight races in next Sunday’s second round of elections for municipal councillors and mayors.

Key ministers in the government of Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin failed, or were failing, in their bids for mayoral posts, bringing home the left’s failure to profoundly change the political map.

‘‘There is no pink wave,’’ the French media kept repeating, referring to the Socialist Party’s symbol, the rose.

While local issues dominate municipal voting every six years, national concerns provide the backdrop. Coming a year ahead of the presidential election, the outcome is critical to conservative President Jacques Chirac whose divided right would be further unhinged by a poor showing.

Chirac is expected to face off Jospin in 2002, though neither man has made his candidacy official.

All eyes were on the four-way duel in the French capital, where Chirac served as mayor for 18 years, until 1995, when he won the presidency.

The little known Socialist senator Bertrand Delanoe, with an estimated 31-36% of the vote, was in position to defeat Philippe Seguin, a conservative with a national profile who took 24-26% of the vote.

However, drama on the right upstaged Delanoe’s performance.

Despite his weaker showing, Seguin refused appeals for an alliance by incumbent Mayor Jean Tiberi, tarnished by kickback scandals centred on City Hall, and allegedly dating to Chirac’s days as mayor.

Tiberi’s showing some 14% was the surprise of the Paris vote and could mean a tight second round if Seguin forged an alliance.

‘‘It’s unthinkable, unimaginable and suicidal’’ not to fuse for the second round, Tiberi said, refusing to reply to Seguin’s demand that he simply withdraw.

Green Party candidate Yves Contassot, who had some 12% of the vote, has assured Delanoe of his backing.

‘‘We’re starting from a simple basis: a green vote equals a Socialist vote,’’ Contassot said on national television.

The left held an undramatic eight-point lead in Lyon, where former Prime Minister Raymond Barre was stepping aside as mayor. The results could change dramatically in the second round if rightist candidate Michel Mercier joins forces with former Defence Minister Charles Millon, credited with some 22% of the vote but tarnished by his 1998 electoral alliance with the extreme right National Front.

In Toulouse, a grass roots movement, Motive-e-s, named after a popular song, could help Socialist candidate Francois Simon win in the second round, despite his 28% score far behind rightist candidate Philippe Douste-Blazy’s 42%. Motive-e-s took 12% of the vote.

Marseille, France’s second largest city, appeared to follow the national trend, retaining incumbent Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin of the rightist Liberal Democracy party.

The extreme right, once a major electoral player but handicapped by a 1999 split, lost the other big Mediterranean city of Toulon in a still undecided race. The anti-immigration National Front retained the small southern town of Orange in a first-round victory, while a dissident far-right party tried to hold on to Marignane, outside Marseille, and Vitrolles.