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   XPost: alt.journalism   
   From: whoopy@democrats.org   
      
   Socialist Obama should be very afraid.   
      
   France’s ruling Socialist Party suffered humiliating losses   
   Sunday in a local vote marked by breakthrough successes for the   
   far-right National Front and the historic election of a first   
   female mayor of Paris.   
      
   On a day dubbed “Black Sunday” by one Socialist lawmaker, the   
   National Front (FN) won control of at least eight towns and was   
   on track to claim 1,200 municipal council seats nationwide, its   
   best-ever showing at the grassroots level of French politics.   
      
   It was also a night to savour for France’s main opposition, the   
   centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).   
      
   The party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy performed strongly   
   across the country, seizing control of a string of towns and   
   cities, including some once considered bastions of the left.   
      
   In a rare consolation for President François Hollande’s party,   
   the Socialists held on to control of Paris, where Anne Hidalgo,   
   54, will become the first female mayor of the French capital   
   after a victory that was far more comfortable than anyone had   
   expected.   
      
   But Limoges, a town that had been run by the left for 102 years,   
   fell to the UMP, as did Toulouse, the Champagne capital Reims   
   and Saint-Ètienne, as well as dozens of other smaller urban   
   centres.   
      
   “It has been a black Sunday,” said Socialist deputy Jean-   
   Christophe Cambadelis.   
      
   Candidates backed by Marine Le Pen’s FN secured the mayor’s seat   
   in the mid-sized southern towns of Béziers and Fréjus and six   
   smaller towns, adding to its first-round victory in the northern   
   town of Hénin-Beaumont.   
      
   “We have moved onto a new level,” Ms. Le Pen claimed. “There is   
   now a third major political force in our country.”   
      
   The historic festival city of Avignon, where the FN had headed   
   the first-round vote, remained under left-wing control and Ms.   
   Le Pen’s party also failed to win the northeastern town of   
   Forbach and the southern city of Perpignan, both of which had   
   been amongst their top objectives.   
      
   An OpinionWay poll for Le Figaro suggested the UMP and its   
   allies had taken 45 per cent of the votes cast nationwide in   
   municipalities of more than 1,000 residents, while the   
   Socialists and other left-wing parties took 43 per cent and the   
   FN, which was only standing in a small number of communes,   
   registered 7 per cent.   
      
   “We have had a very severe warning,” acknowledged Ségolène   
   Royal, Mr. Hollande’s former partner who is tipped for a return   
   to government in the reshuffle that is expected to follow in the   
   wake of Sunday’s rout.   
      
   The Socialists were not helped by a turnout estimated at around   
   62 per cent of the electorate, which is low by French local   
   election standards and was largely explained by large numbers of   
   left-leaning voters staying at home.   
      
   The low turnout had pointed to a close contest in Paris.   
      
   But, in the end, Ms. Hidalgo emerged as a comfortable winner in   
   her battle with former UMP minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet   
   to join a very small club of women in charge of major cities   
   around the world.   
      
   The FN’s success in these elections has been widely interpreted   
   as reflecting exasperation among voters with the Hollande   
   government.   
      
   The Socialists’ failure to get a stagnant economy moving and   
   reverse the upward march of unemployment is seen as having   
   aggravated anger over other issues, such as crime and   
   immigration, and increased disillusionment with mainstream   
   politicians of all stripes.   
      
   Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is widely expected to be made   
   the principal scapegoat for the government’s failures when   
   Hollande takes stock on Monday morning. “The message the voters   
   have sent is very clear and must be clearly heard,” Ayrault said.   
      
   http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/frances-ruling-   
   socialists-face-drubbing-in-municipal-polls/article17729519/   
      
            
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)