President Nicolas Sarkozy's party braced for a potential electoral wipeout in Sunday's final round of regional elections, which an alliance of the rival left hopes will give it a national sweep and a staging ground for 2012 presidential voting. Even damage control was difficult for the conservatives. Sarkozy's UMP party, or Union for a Popular Majority, has ended up pleading with voters to go to the polls, hoping supporters simply failed to cast ballots in the first round – the case for more than one in two French. The participation rate was at a historic low in last Sunday's voting – some 46 percent. The Socialist-led left won 53.5 percent of the votes while the UMP-led conservatives had 39.9 percent. Even with Sarkozy's party, some said voters were being alienated by the president and his high-speed reforms. Former Prime Minister Alain Juppe said this week that Sarkozy must start “facing reality.” “Reflection is now needed on the pace of reforms, the method in which they are launched and prepared ... how they can be better understood by public confused by the (economic) crisis,” he wrote on his blog. The elections determine control of regional councils concerned with local issues. However, France's regions are gaining increasing power as the country decentralizes. Reflecting the country's grassroots, they can be a valuable mobilizer for the presidential race in which the Socialists are looking to make a comeback.
