FRANCE: The FT says French President Nicolas Sarkozy, “took a
battering” in regional elections at the weekend, with exit polls
suggesting the opposition Socialists had won 54 per cent of the vote.
Sarkozy escaped the humiliation of seeing a centre-left clean sweep of
all 22 regions of France after the exit polls indicated his UMP party
had retained control of Alsace, its last regional stronghold on the
mainland, the FT says. The centre-right was also poised to win in two of
France’s overseas territories.