Raffarin snubbed at the ballot box: la lutte continue!
By Joan Trevor The French regional elections delivered a big snub to right-wing UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) prime minster Jean-Pierre Raffarin. His coalition now control only two - Alsace and Corsica - of the 22 metropolitan regions. The victors in the second round of voting on 28 March were coalitions led by the Socialist Party and including variously the Greens, the Communist Party and other smaller parties of this "plural left". They went from controlling eight regions previously to controlling 20. The share of the vote was roughly 50% to the plural left, 38% to the government...