Beaten Chirac holds crisis talks

PM Raffarin (left) is widely expected to be sacked

President Jacques Chirac has held crisis talks with his prime minister after their party's humiliation at the hands of French voters.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin's sacking is being widely predicted after the centre-right UMP got virtually wiped off the political map in regional elections.

The party was left with only one of 21 of France's mainland regions in Sunday's second round of voting.

The socialists held eight councils and grabbed another 12 from the UMP.

Across the country, the UMP took 36.9% of the vote, with the socialists and their allies on 50%.

MAINLAND RESULTS Regional assembly wins: Socialists: 20 UMP: 1 Corsica and overseas results not included

Voters are thought to be angry at high unemployment, a stagnant economy and unpopular public sector reforms.

Mr Chirac was "working with the prime minister on the decisions which he will have take within the next few days", a spokesman for the Elysee Palace said.

"The French have fired a very big warning shot in our direction," said government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope.

All change

Mr Raffarin said lessons had to be learned by the government, but "reforms must be continued, very simply because they are necessary".

PARTY PERCENTAGES Poll shock for Chirac

Socialist party leader Francois Hollande says voters have expressed their rejection of both Mr Raffarin's government and Mr Chirac.

Our correspondent says the result is expected to lead to a major cabinet reshuffle, with Mr Raffarin tipped as the first to lose his job.

One of the high-profile casualties already claimed by the poll is former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who lost the presidency of the Auvergne region to a socialist.

The far-right National Front confirmed its position as the country's third political force, with nearly 13%.

Options

At least 60% of the voters in France said they remained determined to use these elections to send a strong message of discontent to the government.

Press eyes Chirac's next move Reforms now doomed?

"I feel like France's public sector is being sabotaged," said Elsa Quinette, in Paris.

"What the government is doing is so serious, I just had to speak out."

Others said they wanted the government to stay.

Mr Chirac has spent the past week weighing up his options.

He will have to choose whether to keep Mr Raffarin in his post and use him to push through the next round of reforms - this time to public healthcare - or whether to appoint a new prime minister.

The problem with that is that the most obvious candidate, France's popular Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy, is known to want Mr Chirac's job, correspondents say.

So the president may prefer to keep on his unpopular but loyal prime minister to plough ahead with the next round of difficult reforms, despite voters' discontent.