French left claims Senate win in poll blow to Sarkozy

Frances left-wing opposition struck a blow against embattled centre-right leader President Nicolas Sarkozys hopes for re-election, winning a historic victory in a senatorial vote.The Socialist Party and its Communist and Green allies won enough seats to give the left control of the upper house for the first time in French history, a stepping stone towards a presidential win in seven months time.Sarkozys office released a brief statement taking note of the results, but the leader of his UMP party, Jean-Francois Cope, admitted the election had been a defeat for the Senates outgoing centre-right majority.Right-wing parties have controlled the Senate since the Fifth Republic was founded in 1958, and Sundays flip to the left could break the already weak momentum of Sarkozys unannounced re-election drive.Before the vote, outgoing speaker Gerard Larcher had admitted to media that if he was defeated by the left it would be a political earthquake and the preparations for the presidential election would be singularly changed.The historic Senate victory also opens the door to a possible Socialist hat-trick, given that opinion polls suggest the left will win next years presidential and parliamentary elections.The Senate is not chosen by universal suffrage but by a super-electorate of elected officials -- around 72,000 mayors, local and regional councillors, voting for figures on the basis of regional lists.Larcher said before the vote that he was confident of maintaining at least a six- to 12-seat margin to win re-election to his post on October 1 when the new chamber meets.Jean-Pierre Bel, the leader of socialist senators, now believes he has enough votes to unseat him, with the Socialists and their allies believing that they have a narrow majority.Larcher did not initially admit defeat, however, and insisted he would remain his partys candidate for speaker, hoping to cobble together enough centrist votes to squeak through.Meanwhile, the left-leaning mood in the country appeared to have already had political consequences, with Budget Minister Valerie Pecresse confirming the threshold for top rate income tax might be brought lower.Sarkozy has attempted to play on his foreign policy credentials as the current leader of the G8 and G20 great power blocs and the main foreign champion of the Libyan revolution that toppled Moamer Gaddafi.But whatever glory he may have picked up on the international stage has been drowned out at home by the implication of his closest allies in a series of high-level corruption and party-funding scandals.Meanwhile, unemployment remains high and Frances financial sector has found itself under attack on the markets, where traders fear its banks are overexposed to risky Greek and Italian debts.