A chastened President Sarkozy opens a more subdued second chapter of his presidency today after French voters dealt a rebuff to his centre-right party in the final round of nationwide local elections.

Power shifted to the opposition Socialist party in dozens of cities as the French registered dislike of Mr Sarkozy’s ten-month-old administration and his brash style of leadership.

“The first reshuffle that President Sarkozy has to carry out is a reshuffle of himself,” said François Hollande, the Socialist leader, as city after city fell to the Left. Ségolène Royal, the unsuccessful Socialist presidential candidate last year, said that the results were punishment for a president who had let his people down.

The Left took control of Toulouse after three decades of conservative rule. It also took Strasbourg, but seemed unlikely to seize Marseilles, the other southern bastion, as it had hoped. The leftward swing shored up the Socialists’ control of Paris and Lyon, the two biggest cities.

Mr Sarkozy’s Government played down the defeat for his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), saying that the French were voicing their frustration that reform was not moving faster. “This is a message that says we have to forge ahead with reform,” said François Fillon, the Prime Minister. “The French are impatient.”

Socialist leaders poured scorn on his argument, saying that France had rejected Mr Sarkozy, with the Left defeating the Right by 49 to 47 per cent. The election reversed the balance of power in the 400 main towns, where the UMP won the lion’s share in the previous local elections in 2001. Among government casualties in the voting, Xavier Darcos, the Education Minister, lost his seat as Mayor of Perigueux. Also defeated were Christine Albanel, the Culture Minister, who was seeking election in Paris and Rama Yade, the 32-year-old Human Rights Minister, who was standing for election in a suburb.

François Bayrou, leader of the centrist MoDem party, lost his bid to win election in Pau, early results showed. The defeat was a big setback to his attempt to relaunch a new movement independent of the Right and Left that have governed France for decades.

Brushing off the setback, Mr Sarkozy has vowed to pursue his drive to modernise France, but he has made clear that he has understood the deep discontent shown. “The people have spoken. I will naturally take into account what they expressed,” he said on the eve of the run-offs. “Le Sarkozy Nouveau” will now attempt to shed the unpresidential image that he has forged with his impulsive ways, daily appearances and his hectic private life. He is expected to revert to the more distant monarchical style of reflective statesmanship cultivated by the late François Mitterrand, le Journal du Dimanche reported.

The President is expected to stage a Cabinet reshuffle this week while also revamping his staff at the Élysée Palace. The main victim is David Martinon, 36, his spokesman, who has lost his job after bungling a campaign to be elected Mayor of Neuilly, Mr Sarkozy’s old power base. Mr Martinon, a diplomat, is expected to be given a golden exile as French Consul-General in New York or Los Angeles.

While Mr Sarkozy has been bruised by the local elections, the polls have strengthened François Fillon, the Prime Minister, who has emerged from his boss’s shadow after Mr Sarkozy left him to do the campaigning. Mr Fillon is determined to shake up France’s creaking institutions.

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