Sarkozy wins French election

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative party won a comfortable but smaller than expected majority in France’s parliamentary elections tonight, with it and its allies getting at least 330 of the 577 National Assembly seats.

With all but 36 seats left to call, the opposition left enjoyed a stunning rebound in the decisive second-round vote and did far better that even they had anticipated, according to the country’s interior ministry.

Official results showed the left with at least 206 seats.

Sarkozy’s UMP party, headed for a projected majority of at least 50 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, will still face little resistance to the rash of measures he plans to introduce within weeks to make France’s sluggish economy more competitive and less protective.

The result suggests voters in France, long driven by leftist ideals, wanted to send the hard-driving and US-friendly Sarkozy a message that his powers are not absolute, and to keep their concerns in mind.

Some have even predicted mass street protests – like those that hampered former president Jacques Chirac’s efforts to free up the economy – or an eruption of violence in France’s housing projects if Sarkozy goes too far, too fast.

“The French showed they did not want to give all of the power to Nicolas Sarkozy,” former justice minister Elisabeth Guigou, a Socialist, said tonight.