French President Nicolas Sarkozy's center-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) won a comfortable majority on Sunday in the country's parliamentary elections, giving the new president solid backing to follow through on reforms he promised during the campaign.

The UMP won 314 seats in the 577-member National Assembly, 45 fewer than in the outgoing parliament, official results showed. The UMP's centrist allies secured 22 seats.

Sarkozy, 52, who won the presidential vote on a reform platform in France, which has been plagued by sluggish economic growth and high joblessness, has appointed a broad-based government in which centrist and leftist figures hold some of the key posts.

He is expected to address the French people on television in the next few days to announce the start of his reforms. Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon have agreed on launching economic, educational, judiciary and labor reforms, among others, in the next two months.

Sarkozy will call a special session of the new parliament on June 26 to vote on bills to cut taxes, encourage overtime work, grant universities more autonomy, tighten immigration and toughen sentences for repeat offenders.

The new president has supported tax cuts to encourage investment and lower employers' social security contributions so as to spur the economy and create jobs.

The government is scheduled to present to parliament on Wednesday a bill that will exempt employees from extra taxes and employers from additional social security contributions for overtime pay. It also plans to change labor laws to encourage employers and employees to negotiate on equal pay for equal work, better working conditions and pay raises

SOCIALISTS: "USEFUL OPPOSITION"

With a better-than-expected showing in the vote, the Socialist Party and two other left-wing parties took more than 200 seats, a remarkable increase in numbers compared with that they held in the outgoing assembly. The result shows that the opposition still carries considerable clout in parliament.

Some analysts also said that the fact Socialist candidate Segolene Royal gained 47 percent of the vote in the presidential election showed that nearly half of the electorate hold varying degrees of reservations about Sarkozy's reform ideas.

Socialist Party chief Francois Hollande said he was satisfied with the results and pledged his party would act as a "useful opposition" who will remain enthusiastic about proposing reforms and at the same time steadfast in opposing any "wrong decisions" by the government.

And although the majority in parliament makes it easier for Sarkozy to push through his reform measures, any success still hinges on full understanding and support from the majority of the French people.

Some French analysts said the performance of the right-wing party and its allies in the second round of the parliamentary vote had been hurt due partly to the opposition's strong criticism of its proposed tax reform, which swayed some voters.

NEW EU TREATY

Sarkozy also has to think about how to revive the European Union Constitution, which was ratified by 18 countries but rejected by the French and Dutch in 2005.

He has proposed a simpler version of the constitution and discussed it with European leaders, who reportedly gave a "positive response" to the text.

EU leaders have stepped up their diplomatic efforts recently to try to narrow differences over the contents of a new EU treaty.

Germany, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, is pushing leaders to agree at next week's EU summit on which parts of the blueprint can be salvaged and which need to be amended or dropped, with a view to adopting the revised treaty in 2009. A unanimous agreement is needed.

Source: Xinhua