France's Sarkozy Poised for Election Win in Parliament
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PARIS (AP) - President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to revive France's economy and its identity appeared poised for victory on Sunday in parliamentary elections, with voters widely expected to give allies of their new conservative leader a mandate for change.

Some left-leaning voters were already sensing defeat - and cast ballots more to block Sarkozy's faithful out of fear they will strip away workplace protections, the ability for unions to mount crippling strikes and generous state-provided health care benefits.

Sarkozy's UMP party and its allies were projected to win about 46 percent of the vote, while the opposition Socialists and other leftists were expected to win 36-37 percent, according to projections by three polling agencies. That gives the conservatives a strong advantage heading into the June 17 runoff, and puts them on track for an absolute majority in parliament. Turnout hit a record low of less than 61 percent, polls said.

Since his election May 6, Sarkozy has cast himself as a man of action - certainly compared to former President Jacques Chirac's slower pace - and has drawn plaudits for getting straight to work to revive a country down on its economic fortunes and adrift in its identity.

The new president's "strategy has been impeccable," political analyst Dominique Moisi said. "He's done the popular things first, and is saving the unpopular ones for later."

"There is a sense of optimism in the air - a sense that we are on top of things," Moisi said.

Sunday's balloting is the first round. In France's complex electoral calculus, only candidates who win a majority of votes Sunday land a seat immediately. In races with no majority winner, any candidate who gets more than 12.5 percent will qualify for the runoff on June 17.

In the first round of the last legislative vote in 2002 turnout was 64.4 percent.

A total of 7,639 candidates from 14 parties across the spectrum were vying for five-year terms in the 577-member National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.

The outcome is likely to leave Sarkozy with substantial political control, much like the sweeping powers Charles de Gaulle enjoyed with his hallmark strong presidency.

"I'm ***ressed - I voted for the Socialists purely because the right is going to win," said Geraldine Gourbe, a 30-year-old philosophy professor, on her way out of a polling station in northern Paris.

"I voted for them to be effective, but I'd rather have voted for the Greens or the Communist Revolutionary League," she said, concerned that those parties' candidates stood less of a chance of gaining seats.

The composition of Sarkozy's Cabinet and its ability to push through legislation is tied to the number of seats the mainstream right holds.

Labor unions and student groups are ready to mount strikes and protests if they deem that Sarkozy wants to go too far in trying to trim France's welfare state protections.

Segolene Royal, the Socialist defeated by Sarkozy, has been campaigning for her party comrades for the legislative race, but is not running herself.

A break with the past appears in store. There has been left-right alternation in parliamentary control after every legislative vote since 1978. But this time, conservatives look set to be renewed.