Sarkozy's UMP Retains Parliament Majority, Socialists Gain Ground

World | June 17, 2007, Sunday // 00:00

The centre-right party of French president Nicolas Sarkozy maintained its comfortable majority in the parliament, despite losing some ground, while the Socialists strengthened their position, exit polls showed after the second round of legislative elections on Sunday.

UMP and its allies are set to have between 342 and 360 MPs in the 577-seat legislature, compared to the 359 it had before the elections, daily Le Monde said, quoting data by three independent pollsters.

At the same time, the Socialists are set to increase their standing to between 225 and 233 seats, up from 149.

The MoDem party of Francois Bayrou, who came third in last month's presidential elections, is expected to win two or three seats, while the extreme right Popular Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen will once again miss out.

The results however, fall short of the "blue wave" landslide victory predicted after last week's first round, but Sarkozy will have more than a comfortable majority to push through his reform platform.

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