(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-17 08:06

PARIS - France's opposition Socialists made sweeping gains in local elections on Sunday, delivering a sharp blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy just 10 months after his triumph in last year's presidential election.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (C) votes in the second round municipal elections in Paris on March 16, 2008. France goes to the polls for the final round of municipal elections which could leave the left in charge of most major French cities and put pressure on Sarkozy to change his style of government. [Agencies]

The Socialists retained control of the capital Paris and won a string of towns and cities from Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party, including the key cities of Toulouse and Strasbourg.

But they failed to win the biggest symbolic prize of the evening, France's third city of Marseille, which the right just managed to hold, saving itself from total humiliation in the nationwide vote.

The elections were the first test of Sarkozy's popularity with voters since his victory last May, and the mood has changed sharply since then as the economy has faltered.

The Socialists, looking for a success to overcome the infighting that has plagued them since the defeat of their candidate, Segolene Royal, in the presidential election, won more than 15 major towns and cities from the right.

"And bling!" was the headline of the left-wing daily Liberation above a full-page cartoon depicting a crushed Sarkozy, whom it habitually characterises as the "bling-bling" president.

Government leaders maintained that voters had decided on local issues and that the result would not affect national policies, but some were less sanguine.

"This is an evening of defeat," said Jean-Francois Cope, leader of the UMP parliamentary party.

Socialist leaders immediately called on the government to listen to voters and abandon "unjust" reforms but Prime Minister Francois Fillon said there would be no change of direction.

"We will not duck the difficulties, we will respect our commitments. With the President of the Republic, we will make France succeed," Fillon said in a televised statement.

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