French voters go to the polls for the decisive round of local elections on Sunday with the Socialist government reeling from a poor first round score, and Marine Le Pen’s populist Front National (FN) vowing to win control of several towns.<br /><br />The anti-immigration, anti-EU party came top in more than 20 last Sunday, with unemployment high and the economy sluggish.<br /><br />With turnout at a record low of just over 60 percent, President Hollande’s Socialist Party won just 38 percent of the national vote, behind 47 percent for the opposition conservatives.<br /><br />The socialists are desperate to hold onto Paris. The mainstream right candidate Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet emerged top last week but the Socialists’ Anne Hidalgo remains favourite.<br /><br />However a long list of towns held by the left could swing to the centre-right UMP.<br /><br />“If the left suffers a big setback, if it also loses symbolic cities such as Toulouse and Strasbourg… If a surprise occurs in Paris even if that seems unlikely, François Hollande will have to act. Does that mean a change of prime minister? No-one can say right now,” said Frédéric Dabi, Assistant Director-General at pollsters Ifop France.<br /><br />Even though the governing Socialists tried to campaign on local issues, for Hollande the first round brought a stinging rebuke.<br /><br />There was more bad news for the president in midweek, with the announcement that the number of people out of work in France surged in February by 31,500 to a new record.<br /><br />The president has said the government must “learn the lesson”; there is talk of possible tax cuts, as well as speculation that Hollande will reshuffle his government and possibly eject Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.<br /><br />Despite the election losses, Hollande’s government has said it will stick with economic reforms and spending cuts, including a plan to phase out 30 billion euros in payroll tax on companies in exchange for hiring more workers.
