President Nicolas Sarkozy may have distinguished himself as the most notoriously headline-hungry French leader in living memory, but he performed an uncharacteristic disappearing act in the run-up to Sunday's nationwide municipal elections. That's because advance polls had warned that voters would use the local polls to vent their disgruntlement at Sarkozy's national leadership. Remaining conspicuously out of sight, however, did not put Sarkozy out of voters' minds: They delivered a stinging rebuke to Sarkozy's party and his conservative allies, who now face uphill battles against leftists in decisive run-off elections March 16. Just last summer, Sarkozy's party coasted to legislative election victory on the coattails of his presidential win; now, members of his cabinet are urging voters not to let their frustration with the national government determine the outcome of local contests.
"The politics of the nation were debated and decided by the French people in the spring of 2007," said Prime Minister Franois Fillon after first-round polls closed Sunday, leaving his fellow conservatives in difficulty against leftist rivals in key cities across France. "What is now at stake is the management of our cities, our villages, and our departments ... next Sunday, the values of general interest, of work, of security and solidarity should be expressed in our local democracy."
Fillon's statement epitomizes the efforts by French conservatives to "de-Sarkocize" municipal elections that offered voters their first chance to express themselves since the President's approval rating went into free fall. Even before Sunday's results, many conservative candidates had sought to disassociate their campaigns from the increasingly unpopular President. Several removed references to Sarkozy and even the name of his Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) party from their campaign posters and literature, and many declined presidential offers to stump on their behalf.
Lowering Sarkozy's profile in the campaign may have helped the right: First-round voting nationally showed leftists beating conservatives by 47.05% to 45.29% — a margin far closer than the tidal wave of protest that had been predicted in opinion polling. Little wonder, then, that Fillon and other conservative leaders applauded the initial outcome as "balanced," and denounced leftist claims that constituted a rebuke of Sarkozy as as "partisan politics that don't correspond to local realities."
Still, local realities allowed Socialist-led majorities to capture city halls in first-round polling in France's third-largest city Lyon, as well as in Nantes, Rouen and Dijon. The left also posted dominant leads in Paris, Lille and Strasbourg, and was in tight races going into run-offs even in such traditional conservative bastions as Marseille and Toulouse. In many close runoff races next weekend, Socialist candidates appear more likely to gain the support of the centrist Modem party, which had once been a coalition partner of Sarkozy's UMP — although the centrists may demand a prohibitive price for throwing their support to the Socialists.
French conservatives did score some significant victories in the initial round of voting: Former Prime Minister Alain Jupp, for example, won the mayor's job in Bordeaux, just nine months after he suffered a stunning upset for the city's parliamentary seat — a loss that made him ineligible to serve in the national government. Fifteen of the 22 members of Fillon's cabinet of 33 who were on Sunday's municipal ballots either won first-round victories, or were in strong positions for the runoff. Still, the left appears to have done well by trading on the increasing unpopularity of President Sarkozy.