Right wins two French by-elections
France’s Socialist government suffered a setback in two by-elections this weekend. The right-wing UMP and UDI parties won both seats for expatriates but only 14 per cent of potential voters cast their ballots in one of the constituencies.
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UMP leader Jean-François Copé declared the results a condemnation of President François Hollande’s policies.
But Socialist Party official Christophe Borgel claimed that “by-elections are never easy for governments in power at the time” and pointed to a “historic” abstention rate of 86 per cent in the north America constituency where UMP member Frédéric Lefebvre won.
Standing for former ecology minister Jean-Louis Borloo's UDI, Meyer Habib won a constituency covering French citizens living in Cyprus, Israel, Greece, Italy and Turkey.
Habib is vice-president of the Jewish organisation, Crif.
In spite of the results, the Socialists keep their absolute majority in parliament.
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