Far-right claims Senate seats

The far-right anti-EU National Front (FN) appears poised to win seats in the French Senate for the first time. Mainstream conservatives are also likely to make gains in the Senate, which is chosen by an 88,000-member college drawn from France’s various regions.

Final results are not expected until Monday, according to the Senate press office. Half of the 348-member Senate is elected every three years. Senators hold six-year terms.

Sunday's early trend, if confirmed, would amount to another setback for the Socialists. In May, center- and far-right parties made big gains in municipal and European parliamentary elections.

Based on incomplete figures, the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) said on Sunday it had won 16 extra seats - enough to win back the Senate majority. The UMP and allied centrist Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) claimed they could end up with a majority of even 20 seats.

Until now, the governing Socialists and other left-wing parties had held a total of 177 Senate seats.

FN claims 2 seats

National Front leader Marine Le Pen told the French news agency AFP that her party had won two seats in the Senate for the first time.

The entry showed the FN's "dynamism" in winning from election to election, she said. In France's European election in May, the FN won 25 percent.

Surveys show that Hollande's popularity ratings have dwindled to the lowest level of any postwar president.

His defeated conservative rival of 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy, recently signaled a political comeback, though he has not overtly declared that he is eyeing the 2017 presidential election.

Hollande's government has already been through two cabinet reshuffles as it tries to battle the nation's crises, including sky-high unemployment, a bulging deficit and zero-growth.

Less power than National Assembly

The Senate wields less power that the directly elected lower house, the National Assembly, where left-wing parties, including Hollande's socialists, won their absolute majority in 2012.

The Senate can, however, block amendments to the constitution and delay the adoption of legislation by demanding revision in the National Assembly.

Sunday's elections saw more than 88,000 regional and local elected officials vote nationwide for their preferred Senate candidate.

Right-wing parties had controlled the Senate since 1958. In 2011, the upper house flipped to the left in a move that preceded Sarkozy's eventual loss to Hollande in 2012 presidential elections.

ipj/bw (AFP, dpa, AP)