The record abstention, the triumph of the left and the far-right FN in advance of the cantonal elections in France on Sunday is the final warning to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose party is losing ground to a year in the 2012 presidential.

According to final results released Monday by the Interior Ministry, the opposition Socialist Party (PS) won 35.43% of the vote ahead of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP, right) which recorded 20% of votes and more than a million votes.

The National Front (FN, far right) led by Marine Le Pen, daughter and political heir of Jean Marie Le Pen, was in third place with 11.57% of the votes, equivalent to more than 915,000 votes.

Between the first and the second round of these local elections in 2026 renewed general directors, one for each of the cantons that make up the 100 French departments, the FN won 300,000 more votes.

"We must be more attentive to this trivialization of the right-wing vote," he acknowledged on Monday the French government spokesman Francois Baroin to discuss the progress of the FN, reinforced by a survey whereby 52% of the French viewed the National Front is a game like the others. "

The UMP "must return to Republicans deeply values: freedom, equality, fraternity and secularism," said Baroin, who said "must end all those discussions" about secularism and Islam promoted by the Executive.

In the last year, Sarkozy's strategy was to take up the favorite of the far right-debate on national identity, the place of Islam in France, immigration and crime and secularism - to win the electorate, but the polls and surveys show that had a boomerang effect that could reach the president.

That seems to confirm a poll released Sunday night.

Marine Le Pen, 42, whom some analysts describe as "iceberg against which the ship struck the UMP", would go to the second round of the 2012 presidential eliminating President Nicolas Sarkozy, according to a survey by IPSOS.

According to the survey, Marine Le Pen would get 21% in the first round behind the possible Socialist candidate Dominique Strauss Kahn, IMF's current pattern, and ahead of Sarkozy, who receive 17% of the vote, and would thus be eliminated.

These cantonal served to reinforce the presence of the local Socialists, already controlled 58 departments and grabbed five of the 42 that were held by the UMP.

"We have a duty to achieve victory in 2012 by France and the French," said Martine Aubry, the Socialist Party first secretary in October to elect its presidential candidate in a primary open.

The Socialists stressed on Monday the record abstention over 56%.

"Voting is not just a right, is a must," said former Socialist Prime Minister Laurent Fabius in favor of compulsory voting.

The FN, a party that goes to the elections without allies, won only two counties because of the electoral system but managed to field candidates in over 1,500 counties showing the geographical progression.

"The party of Marine Le Pen scored a success that goes beyond the polls (...) A year after the presidential elections, these cantons are a warning," he said Monday in its editorial the newspaper Liberation (left).

Sarkozy, who recorded its lowest rate in popularity since 2007 (29%), seems to deaf ears on Monday reaffirmed that it will maintain its debate on secularism.

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