France's mainstream left crushed the ruling conservatives in regional elections on Sunday, paving the way for a government reshuffle and raising questions about the pace of economic reforms.
Exit polls showed the Socialist Party and its allies, buoyed by discontent with government cost-cutting, won about 50 percent of votes, the centre-right won 37.5 percent and the far-right 12.5 percent in second round voting to 26 regional councils.
The left swept to victory in a large majority of the regions.
Polls said those were likely to include the key Ile de France region that Paris is part of, Poitou-Charentes where Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin made his name and Auvergne, where former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing lost.
President Jacques Chirac's centre-right UMP had controlled 14 regions since the last regional vote in 1998 and the left had held 11.
Chirac is not obliged to act on the election, seen as a mid-term test of his policies three years before the next presidential election.
But he is widely expected to shake up the cabinet and even Raffarin's job is not considered safe. The left made a big rebound from the 2002 parliamentary election, when it lost power with 37 percent of votes compared to the centre-right's 43 percent.
It is expected to use its regional gains as a platform for the 2007 presidential and parliamentary contest. A cabinet reshuffle has been widely expected since the left won 40 percent of votes in the first round of voting on March 21 compared to the centre-right parties' 34 percent and the far-right's 17 percent.
Political commentators said before the second round that Raffarin, a Chirac ally, was likely to stay for now but a rout could hasten his departure.
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