French senators elected a Socialist to lead the upper house for the first time in more than 50 years on Saturday after left-wing candidates wrested control of the Senate last week from President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling conservative party.
Sarkozy's government was dealt a sharp blow, just seven months before a presidential election, by the major generational change of guard in the Senate after left-wing candidates prized more than 20 seats from the ruling party.
Jean-Pierre Bel, 59, won an outright majority in Saturday's secret ballot to become Senate president, the first time since 1958 that a left-wing senator will run the upper house. "Here was a vote for change and the keys to change have been handed to the left," Bel told senators after his appointment. "They (voters) have given us three responsibilities: a historical one because after decades the Senate has been opened to an alternative, a political one because (voters) expressed their discontent and real unease at the direction we are taking and a moral responsibility because they wanted a new Senate."
Bel said despite the Socialist majority the new upper house would not be "obstructive", but would offer constructive proposals. A left-leaning Senate would not be able to derail Sarkozy's legislative plans as the right still dominates the lower house which has the final say. But the loss of a longstanding bastion for the right is a symbolic setback especially when taken together with his poor poll ratings and will give the Socialists a boost ahead of primaries next week to elect their 2012 presidential candidate.
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