| France's leftist Socialist Party (PS) won European Parliament elections in the country on Sunday, beating President Jacques Chirac's ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).
The PS won 28.89 percent of the vote, ahead of the UMP with 16.64 percent and the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF) with 11.95 percent, according to final results released by the French Interior Ministry.
A total of 57.2 percent of the French electorate abstained from voting, higher than the 53.2 percent in 1999.
France has 78 representatives in the European Parliament of the enlarged 25-nation European Union, instead of 87 seats in the last parliament elected in 1999.
The PS will take 31 seats in the European Parliament; the UMP, 17; and the UDF, 11. Meanwhile the far-right National Front will get seven seats; the Greens, six; the Movement for France, three; the French Communist Party, two; and the Communist Party of Reunion (overseas), one.
PS leaders called on President Chirac to draw lessons from the elections, saying the credibility of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's government almost fell to zero.
Half the French people hope that President Chirac could replace Raffarin, according to the polls.
Raffarin did not make any comment on the election result. |
