By James Mackenzie
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party was beaten by the Socialists in the first round of regional elections on Sunday, according to early results which also showed a resurgence for the far-right.
Sarkozy has tried to play down the importance of the ballot, saying it would have no impact on his reform drive and would not force a major cabinet reshuffle, but the scale of the projected loss heartened the Socialists after years of bitter infighting.
"This vote represents a severe punishment for the right," said the Socialist party's Segolene Royal, who lost heavily to Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election.
Initial estimates showed the Socialists winning up to 30 percent of the first round vote against around 27 percent for the UMP and its coalition partners, leaving the left well placed to win convincingly in the second round run-off on March 21.
The Greens and far-right National Front also scored highly in the vote, while the far-left and centrists lost ground.
The vote was the last national test before the 2012 presidential race and the Socialists had been counting on a successful result to build a platform to challenge Sarkozy.
However, the Socialists also triumphed in the last regional vote in 2004, winning all but two of mainland France's 22 regions only to then lose heavily in 2007 national elections.
Unemployment at more than 10 percent and worries over issues such as security and immigration have drained support for the government in the euro zone's No. 2 economy while Sarkozy's personal approval ratings have dropped to around 36 percent.
But Prime Minister Francois Fillon said a record abstention rate, estimated at some 53 percent, made it impossible to draw any conclusions at national level.
"Against all previous predictions, nothing has been decided for the second round in numerous regions. Everything is still left to do," he said.
NATIONAL FRONT RESURFACES
Opinion polls before the vote had forecast a good result for the Socialists but the surprisingly strong backing for the anti-immigration National Front and the Greens left both well placed also to play a significant role in the second round.
The Greens were expected to hook up with the Socialists, but the National Front will carry on alone and will almost certainly bleed votes from the UMP in some key polls.
"The National Front, which people said was beaten, dead and buried by the president, has shown that it is still a national force, and probably getting bigger and bigger," veteran far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen told TF1 television.
The far-right was forecast to win up to 12 percent of the vote at a nationwide level, with Le Pen himself expected to win more than 20 percent of the vote in southern region based around the Mediterranean port of Marseille.
In the last parliamentary election in 2007, the party took just 4.3 percent of the vote.
The environmentalist Europe Ecology party won an estimated 12.5 percent of the vote on Sunday, making it France's third biggest political party.
France's regional councils, responsible for issues ranging from maintaining school buildings to local transport, have little economic power and normally attract scant interest.
But the message the vote sends will be closely watched outside France for the possible impact on the pace of reform.
With the public deficit seen at 8.2 percent of gross domestic product after the billions of euros in stimulus measures pumped into the economy last year, the government faces a major task to get state finances back under control.
Sarkozy has pledged to continue with a major overhaul of the pension system due to be completed later this year but in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper last week, he signalled a pause in the pace of reform next year.
(Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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