A regional slap for Sarkozy

The conservative UMP by French President Nicolas Sarkozy suffered a major defeat in the final round of the regional elections on Sunday, gaining just 36 percent of the vote while the Socialists netted around 54 percent. The conservative daily Corriere della Sera talks of the defeat of a strategy, but not of the president: "The election result is a resounding slap in the face for a president who has squandered the wide support he enjoyed among the people. He lost sight of the ambitious reform and modernisation project, the 'strategy of rupture' [with the past and former president Jacques Chirac] to which he owed his triumphal entrance into the presidential palace. Sarkozy is now at a crossroads. Everything indicates that he will follow the path of renouncement and confirm the unwritten rule of his predecessors, who took the Elysée with promises of revolution but preserved their hold on it with the 'marche tranquille': One step after the other and sometimes two steps back."

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