French president Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party won a comfortable majority in parliamentary elections on Sunday (17 June) – securing him enough leeway to kickstart political and economic reforms – but fell short of the landslide victory predicted before the elections.
The final official results gave the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement 345 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, less than in the outgoing parliament (359) and way below what polls had predicted (up to 500).
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