France gears up for parliamentary vote after Hollande win

France's political parties geared up on Monday for next month's key parliamentary elections, as Socialist president-elect Francois Hollande took his first steps to form a government.

Rumours swirled about who might take top posts in the executive after Hollande's defeat of Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday, with the Socialists anxious to seize the reins of power after being out of government for a decade.

The Socialists, Sarkozy's centre-right UMP and smaller parties were meanwhile getting ready for the two-round legislative vote on June 10 and 17, with Hollande and his team urging supporters to give them a strong majority.

"There is still much to do in the months to come, first of all to give a majority to the president," Hollande, 57, said Sunday, shortly after his 52 to 48 percent win over Sarkozy was announced.

Under France's political system the president requires a parliamentary majority to maintain a government, otherwise the prime minister is in charge of the executive.

French voters have always handed a majority to newly elected presidents but there have been cases of "cohabitation", as when Jacques Chirac dissolved parliament and Socialist Lionel Jospin governed from 1997 to 2002.

Hollande's team took no chances and urged supporters to flock to the polls.

"The president of the republic needs a majority. A cohabitation in June, that makes no sense," Hollande's spokesman Manuel Valls said.

But Sarkozy's spokeswoman Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said too much power was concentrated in the hands of the left and urged voters to "rebalance" French politics by voting UMP in the parliamentaries.

"Now we have the new president, the Senate, most of the regions, a large number of departments and many big cities in the hands of the left," she said on Europe 1 radio.

"I dream of a rebalancing in the parliamentaries. It would be unprecedented in France for all the power to be in the hands of a single party," she said.

Two polls released Sunday showed the two parties neck-and-neck in the polls, with 31 percent of voters planning to back the Socialists and 30 percent the UMP.

Both parties are facing challenges on their flanks, from the Communists and Left Front for the Socialists and from the far-right National Front of Marine Le Pen, who scored a record 18 percent in the first-round presidential vote, for the UMP.

The Socialists were also busy with the complicated and politically fraught task of forming a cabinet before Hollande takes power formally on May 15, and some names were already emerging as potential candidates for top posts.

"There must be a mix of experience and renewal" in the government, said Laurent Fabius, a 65-year-old former prime minister under Socialist president Francois Mitterrand who is being considered as a possible foreign minister.

Two top names are being touted as potential prime ministers.

Jean-Marc Ayrault, 62, is a close Hollande ally who heads the Socialists' parliamentary group, and Martine Aubry, 61, is the Socialist Party leader who Hollande defeated in a primary for the presidential nomination.

Hollande's spokesman Valls, 49, is also considered an outsider for the prime minister's post and reports indicate he is more likely to become the powerful interior minister.

Other names being circulated for top posts include Michel Sapin, 60, who may retake the post of finance minister he held under Jospin, and Jean-Yves Le Drian, the 64-year-old head of Brittany's regional council, for defence.

One prominent Socialist, former presidential contender and Hollande's ex-partner Segolene Royal, is not expected to take a government post but may seek the symbolically important role of speaker of the National Assembly.
 

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