| And the best part is the hand-wringing at the Guardian. |
The UMP, the party which Sarkozy led until being elected president in May for a five-year term, now seems likely to have up to 450 of the 577 seats in the national assembly. The total will be boosted by a variety of small centre-right groups who will be parliamentary allies. It is set to be the biggest single parliamentary majority under the 49-year-old constitution of the Fifth Republic. 'It's going to be a landslide,' said one parliamentary candidate yesterday. 'The people are with us and there is no real opposition.'
According to satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaine, the parliamentary election has pitted the 'steamroller' of the right against the 'rolling pin' of the left, with a 'Rhapsody in Blue' as the likely result. "Hegemony, dominance, supremacy...all describe the grip of the "Sarkozy system",' said the newspaper.
| Along with economic revival, liberty, hard work, success ... |
The seats of several senior Socialist figures are now threatened. Segolene Royal, the defeated Socialist candidate, has played on fears of an all-powerful Sarkozy, but public divisions between Royal and the secretary of the Socialist Party, her partner Francois Hollande, and public sniping among senior figures have damaged her campaign. On Friday, Royal insisted her party 'came together when the stakes are high'.
However, MPs, grass-roots militants and voters are disgusted at the internal rivalry. 'There is no point in replacing [one leader] with another unless we have a real debate. We need a genuine calm, cool analysis of what has happened,' said Philippe Martin, a Socialist MP.
| You're Socialists. Calm and cool aren't in your vocabulary. |
Although Sarkozy's approval levels have hit record levels of 67 per cent, the government has been rattled by mounting concerns among voters about a proposed hike to value added tax. Sarkozy's government is considering raising VAT from 19.5 per cent to 24.5 per cent to help finance plans to reduce payroll charges and make French companies more competitive. The Socialists argue that the move would hurt the poor, and a poll published on Friday said that 60 per cent of voters oppose the idea. Sarkozy had largely stayed away from the debate about VAT until Thursday night, when he issued a statement saying he 'would not accept any increase in VAT in its current form that would decrease the French people's purchasing power'.