In response to gb and MG, this "majority" seems undemocratic as, due to the non-proportional representation in place for the legislatives, the division of seats is pointedly undemocratic.
Example : Le Nouveau Centre, Bayrou's former party, got 2.2% of the vote, yet should (with UMP backing) win up to 24 seats; proportionately they only deserve 12 (out of 577).
Bayrou, with 7.5% of the vote, is only sure of getting 1 parliamentary seat (his own). His party's performance should have earned him about about 40.
At 40% of 577 - by any calculations - the UMP's share of seats (estimated at up to 420) is also deepy unproportional and unrepresentative - and will leave parliament sadly unbalanced and unchecked.

Add record abstention of 40% (so the UMP won 40% of a 60% turnout : that's 24% of registered voters), and the "blue tidal wave" seems overlaboured.

Here's to a strong turn-out on sunday to remove any doubts. And let's hope it's not a hung parliament!

Luke, Marseille,

I just think this election is all except undemocratic ! French want things to change, quickly, radically. They have given to Sarkozy a clear mandate to renovate France as F.Fillon, his PM said.
I think it's going to happen. I Hope actually... We all hope. Everibody agrees : If we don't change now, we'll be no longer a big and modern country. I jsut don't want France to Decline. I believe in my country, Let's give a chance to The Man... probably our last chance anyway.

Ludovic de Valon, London, UK

Indeed. The "Socialist" Party is nothing of the sort. Segolene Royal, beloved by the capitalist goons of social democracy, but the subject of skepticism by true socialists and opponents of capitalism. The "Socialist" Party is partly responsible for their very own drastic loss. A powerful right-wing coalition (and I say that for clarity, given I think the Socialist Party in France is mainly center-right), threatens to tear down everything France has accomplished. What must happen, is the creation of a new grassroots socialist party, truly opposed to capitalism. This can be jumpstarted by the anti-capitalist wing of the Socialist Party breaking off. This would rejuvenate left-wing anti-capitalist politics. It is unclear if the goal of the Socialist Party becoming a left force in French politics is possible, and thus the left wing of the SP might as well start their own party.

I would suggest a name, Parti socialiste populaire, the People's Socialist Party.

Stancel Spencer, Jacksonville, Florida, USA

errr, maybe they lost because their ideas are flawed and the french are fed up being robbed by socialists.

Tax, tax, tax and interference in private life, 35 hour week
mm so what do you do if you have a desire to earn more
and buy a nice house like all the Ms Royale has.
Well the french socialists will make sure you stay poor and stuck in a box that the state provides, well rents to you.

The left lost because they brought nothing new, same old
mantra, tax hard workers and the ambitious.

Brian , London, UK

Considering these latest developments, the French will hopefully stop their incessant ranting about how much the American govermental system has devolved...but I doubt it.

This seems only one of many signs that the world is becoming increasingly controlled by conservative, isolationist, xenophobes, and I don't think it bodes well for any of us.

Sheldon , San Ramon, USA/CA

Squabbling my posterior.

The French left have a psychological blindspot. Sarkozy is riding the zeitgeist of a country that has finally woken up to the fact they were living on borrowed time economically. Period.

50 years of De Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Jack Laing etc. etc. that transfixed the Left, has finally been shown to be the vanity based chimera it was all along.

The jokes flashing around the internet concerning the hated French funcionnaire class, predicted this landslide for 4 years or more.

This same lackey bureacratic class, that the EU has inherited from its engine room French cohorts, has also been injected into the UK political bloodstream by proxy - and still stands to be corrected.

John Farthing, SW2,

You can bet if the left had the same majority there would be no talk of it being unhealthy or undemocratic. They would prefer a system where they were the only party you can vote for.

Dave Proctor, Leeds,

Le "Lapin Duracell" (the "Eveready Bunny") as President Sarkozy has been called here, is off and running and I can't wait for his reforms to get underway. I've had it with the work stagnation, the social inertia, and the public service sector who always seems to want more-more-more. I teach in Paris, and my students have said they want change but are a little afraid. But the French are a resilient people and I believe they can now usher in a new period of prosperity for France. Let's hope so!!

MAW, Paris, France

It's disgusting that a couple, parents of four children, fight publicly about power. The French can take an affair or also a child by a lover, but this is too much for them because it's utterly tasteless. Madame should step back for the sake of the father of her children.

Dany, Munich, Germany

I agree with my American compatriot. How is a majority undemocratic? And if I didn't know better, I'd said the French Socialists' old boys club were slightly misogynistic toward Chere Madame.

MG, newport beach, california

The more we see the more remarkable seems the coup achieved by Sarkozy. He destroyed the FN in the months leading to the election, he has destroyed Modem in only two weeks and for good measure he has demoralised the PCF and the Greens and all this while the main target was the PS. Conventional wisdom would have it that the Chirac government was ripe for defeat by the left.
This did not happen for three good reasons; they failed to shake off their Marxism and modernise under Hollande, they ran a campaign based on personality without intellectual coherence and their political organisation was a shambles. So it was not too hard for Sarkozy to win at home. The away matches are already proving more difficult. Between Markel and Blair on the constitution, on Darfur and on Kosovo he will not find the going as easy as it was in France. Can we expect another Sangatte?

stephen Bull, fontes, france

"Leftwing commentators and the opposition united in decrying what they depicted as the undemocratic “absolute” power that Mr Sarkozy is poised to acquire with the expected “blue tidal wave” in Parliament"

How is it undemocratic? It sounds perfectly democratic to me.
Maybe they meant "unsocialist."

gb, Austin, USA

Can anyone explain to me how any educated, rational person can endorse socialism when it has been revealed over and over again that this philosophy, while irresistible to idealists, simply does not work? If the inherent greed present in virtually every human being is not harnessed and turned into ambition by permitting one to benefit directly proportionally to his or her labors, it will invariably breed corruption and discontent.

Bill, Anaheim, CA,