French election: Socialists and allies win first round

 abercrombie clothingPresident Francois Hollande's Socialists and their allies are set for a majority following the first round of voting in French parliamentary elections, final results show.Left-wing and green parties won a total of more than 46% of the vote compared to 34% for the centre-right UMP party, interior ministry figures showed. The outcome of the polls is expected to determine the extent and pace of reform under the newly-elected French leader.Run-offs are to be held next week.The turnout nationwide was a modest 57%.France's 46 million eligible voters have been picking representatives for 577 seats in the National Assembly.TNS Sofres, Ipos and OpinonWay pollsters agreed that the Socialists and their Green allies might win as few as 283 seats or potentially as many as 347. However, potential allies in the anti-capitalist Left Front would take 13-20 seats and ensure a majority.The communist-backed Left Front, led by Jean-Luc Melenchon, won 6.9% of the vote.The election also saw a surge in support for Marine Le Pen's far right National Front, which won almost 14% of votes - way beyond the 4% it achieved in the last parliamentary election of 2007.However, under France's first-past-the-post system, that would give the party only three parliamentary seats at best and possibly none at all.The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Paris, cautions that it is hard to predict accurately what the final tallies will be before next week's decisive round of voting. In many constituencies there will be a three way run-off.But with the Senate already under the control of the Socialists, it appears that Mr Hollande will also have a majority in the lower house - even if only with the support of allies - which would give him unprecedented power to force through his reform programme.

 abercrombie and fitch ukMr Hollande's government is due to present a revised budget plan to parliament next month.The result of the parliamentary election will determine the pace of reform and how radical it becomes, our correspondent says."It's a good result tonight... but we have to remain mobilised for the second round," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, an influential Socialist, was quoted by news agency AP as saying.It was a big night for Ms Le Pen on a personal level, our correspondent says.The firebrand leader of the hard left Jean Luc Melenchon had challenged Madame Le Pen for the seat in the nothern town of Henin Beaumont. In the end he finished third and last night withdrew from the second round race."It is normal to be disappointed but we must not be defeated," Mr Melenchon said as he bowed out.The far right has not held any seats in parliament since the 1980s. The electoral system may yet deny them a seat - but, adds our correspondent, the National Front is now by some margin the third biggest party in French politics.Francois Hollande, France's next president is an experienced political organiser who has, nonetheless, never held national government office. He is regarded by many as an affable moderate whose quiet - some might say dull - manner contrasts sharply with the intensity and glamour of conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy whom he faced in the second-round run-off on 6 May.However, the modest image of this man who until recently preferred to travel to work on a scooter conceals, his supporters would argue, a steely determination to lead his country.To take the party ticket in 2012, he had to prevail in a gruelling primary election which put both his political and private life to the test.

 abercrombie ukOne of the more dramatic moments of that contest came when fellow contender Segolene Royal - his estranged partner of nearly three decades and mother of his four children - publicly endorsed his bid.Party career Mr Hollande was born the son of a doctor on 12 August 1954 in the north-western city of Rouen.He attended the ENA administration school, where he met Ms Royal, and another elite institution, Sciences Po.Having been active in student politics, he joined the Socialist party in 1979 and played a junior role as an economic adviser in the Mitterrand presidency.An MP since 1988, he represents a constituency in the south central region of Correze.He succeeded Lionel Jospin as party leader in 1997, a post he retained for more than a decade.In 2008, amid acrimony over the defeat of Ms Royal by Mr Sarkozy at the previous year's presidential election, he stood down.It later emerged he had been having an affair with journalist Valerie Trierweiler. He has been with Ms Trierweiler, a political reporter with current affairs magazine Paris Match, ever since.The friction between Mr Hollande and Ms Royal long embarrassed the party but in May 2011 a scandal of a different magnitude threatened to engulf it, when new favourite Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York on attempted rape charges, later dropped. In the ensuing months, many began to see Mr Hollande as the best available bet for 2012.Statesman? Mr Chirac described him in his memoirs as a "true statesman" capable of crossing party lines. The remark was perceived by some as a slight on Mr Sarkozy, whom Mr Chirac openly mocked in his book. However, Mr Hollande is generally viewed as a moderate. "I don't want a hard left," he said during a debate with Martine Aubry, his main rival for the socialist presidential nomination."We're just coming out of five years of a brutal presidency. Should we have a divisive candidacy? I don't want that. We need a solid left."

abercrombie sale ukHe may come across as a moderate but Mr Hollande chose to fight his campaign on some hard-hitting economic policies, with proposals for a 75% top rate of tax and the recruitment of 60,000 new teachers. He has also vowed to renegotiate the EU's fiscal growth pact, signed by President Sarkozy.The idea of a 75% income tax rate for earnings above 1m euros (￡820,000; $1.3m) appeared to take his colleagues by surprise and was widely condemned by his rivals. The head of Mr Sarkozy's UMP party, Jean-Francois Cope, labelled his proposal for thousands of extra teachers as "crazy".In a recent biography called Francois Hollande: The Strength of Mister Nice, political journalist Marie-Eve Malouines paints a picture of a man with a strong ambition for the top job and yet at the same time one who shies away from conflict. It survived 140 years, two world wars and a depression. But today the giant machines of Veninov, a plastic printing factory in Lyon, stand idle. The workshop floor, which covers six hectares (15 acres), is deserted and has been mothballed. Yet for six months, since liquidation, Emmanuel Bouziat and 85 fellow workers have turned up every day to sweep, oil, maintain, and guard the plant. They want to ensure it is in perfect working order - if and when a buyer is found."In 140 years this company employed thousands of workers," said printer Mr Bouziat. "It was alive. Now look at it. It's cold, it's quiet. It's all very sad."Our families don't really understand why we come here without pay. But we think there is a future for this factory if the government got involved."I blame the bosses who betrayed us, but I also hold President [Nicolas] Sarkozy responsible. For five years he has looked after himself and his supporters. The reforms he offers today are too little, and come far too late."Mr Bouziat, 31, showed me the valuable printing cylinders that were used to design up to 15 million plastic tablecloths a year.

abercrombie saleThere are hundreds and each is worth up to 5,000 euros (￡4,000; $6,500). The company had orders before it closed but is still struggling to find an investor - perhaps it is the high labour costs and bureaucracy for which France is now renowned?Taxes rise Mr Bouziat and his colleagues will receive a portion of their salary for the next two years from unemployment benefit. But that bill is paid from payroll taxes of those in work, which in 10 years have become 20% more expensive than in neighbouring Germany.Moreover there are now twice as many small and medium-sized companies (SME) across the Rhine in Germany. On average they employ twice as many people as the same sector in France.Despite the loss of the precious AAA rating - and poll figures which hardly guarantee him a place in a second-round run-off - President Sarkozy is trying to remain upbeat. On Thursday he was in Lyon making a speech to business leaders on jobs and the economy. With unemployment fast becoming one of the central issues of the campaign, he has pledged 500m euros to try to help the country's rising number of jobless workers. He is also proposing structural reforms to the labour market to try and entice investment and encourage the SME sector."This crisis should encourage us to take decisions quickly," he said. "The situation demands it. We must be bold and cold-blooded."But do the employers have an appetite for the reforms he is selling?Philippe Magne is the chief executive of Arcad Software, a small company that exports its computer programmes to 33 different countries, including the UK. He has 30 employees but is reluctant to take on more - for understandable reasons. "I own a small business," he said. "In 2008 I had up to 62 employees. But because of the crisis we had to reduce our wage bill. The redundancy payments were so high it almost bankrupted the company."We need more flexibility for employers. When we lay people off in a small organisation like ours it's not because we want to cream off more profit, it's simply because we don't have the business.