PARIS — If last weekend's first round of local elections was supposed to serve as a slap at President Nicolas Sarkozy and his center-right government, it didn't deliver quite the sting that had been predicted by his opponents.
French voters swung left -- to the Socialist opposition, which won 48% of the overall vote in 36,000 city and village council contests. Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, won 40%, and the rest went to centrists and other parties.
But polls showed that only one of five voters surveyed said they used their ballot Sunday to rebuke Sarkozy's 10-month-old administration, which has been troubled by a flagging economy and questions about the president's personal conduct. And in more evidence that his government still has credibility, 14 of 23 ministers and deputy ministers running for local office were elected in the first round.
"Sarkozy has messed up his public image, and that certainly motivated the left in this campaign," said Philippe Le Corre, a former advisor in a conservative government.
"But the left didn't get a landslide, so the vote should be seen more as a warning than a sanction against his government."
This week, as voters prepared to go again to the polls next Sunday for runoff elections, the usually ubiquitous Sarkozy made only one public appearance, leaving the high-profile stumping for his majority party to Francois Fillon, his popular prime minister.
Sarkozy has remained, in fact, mostly out of sight during the local campaigning after being politically damaged by his handling of his personal life -- a very public divorce in October and a remarriage less than four months later to a former model -- and by the slumping economy, which has stalled his pledge of a national renewal. His approval rating dipped to 33% at the beginning of the year and only recently edged up to 42%.
Pierre Giacometti, a pollster and political strategist, said he expected the voting next Sunday to focus on local issues. "National importance is perhaps a bit involved in the first round, but the second round is all about local taxes and how voters feel about their quality of life. A mayor is a very important person in France, so the voters will focus now on what he's done."
In Evreux, a small city about 60 miles west of Paris, the incumbent mayor is counting on it.
