Storm clouds gathered over Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin yesterday after French voters dealt him a stinging defeat in the first round of regional elections overshadowed by high unemployment and strikes.

Editorials asked whether Raffarin, brought in by President Jacques Chirac as a fresh breeze from the provinces in 2002, could survive in office after seeing his own region among up to a dozen that could shift to the left in next Sunday?s run-off.

A stern-faced Raffarin told voters he would ?take into account? their message, without hinting what he would do, and key allies rushed on Monday to say his cost-cutting reforms, privatisations and social services reductions would continue.

Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, a leading figure on the right mentioned as a possible successor, declared the message the voters sent was to speed up those reforms.?The message reflects the impatience, even the exasperation, of some French with the reforms ... that they find are going too slowly,? she told RTL radio.

The mainstream left won 40 percent of the vote while the centre-right slumped to 34 percent and the far-right National Front rallied a strong 17 percent protest vote. Voting in France?s 26 regions goes into the run-off round next Sunday with the left ? which ran about one-third of them before ? aiming to take up to half the regions, pollsters said.

Raffarin also suffered a humiliating personal defeat, seeing the left rack up 47 percent in the Poitou-Charentes region he led for 14 years. Former Socialist Education Minister Segolene Royale looked set to take the region from the right next week.

The vote for anti-immigrant leader Jean-Marie Le Pen?s National Front was one of its best ever and showed a stubbornly high protest potential in the electorate. It will contest 17 run-offs, draining votes from the mainstream right.

The outcome was a big decline for the ruling parties from the parliamentary election in 2002, when the centre-right won more than 43 percent of votes, the left secured a little over 37 percent and the National Front got just over 11 percent.

Regional votes have only a symbolic national impact but Chirac could remove Raffarin if the second round goes badly. Political analysts said only a second round rout could prompt a U-turn on policies of privatisation, deregulation and cost-cutting reforms but the cabinet could rethink the pace and depth of change in sensitive areas such as the health service.

With Chirac apparently determined to block ambitious Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy from becoming prime minister, analysts saw Alliot-Marie, Labour minister Francois Fillon and parliament speaker Jean-Louis Debré as possible leaders.

Both the left and the National Front cashed in on recent protests by teachers, hospital workers and researchers against moves to cut down France?s public deficit and its welfare state. France?s regions have less power than corresponding German states or Spanish provinces, but can decide on matters such as schools and transport.

<B>Comments from the French press</B>

Les Echos (business daily, Paris): ?What French voters said was anything but ambiguous. It is a vote of punishment for the government and the political forces that support it... If the trend is confirmed in the second round, there are strong chances that the days of the Raffarin government are numbered.?

La Tribune (business daily, Paris): ?Next Sunday, the right will most probably have lost several fiefdoms, including key regions. Will there be other solutions besides reshuffling government, including its chief??

Liberation (left, Paris): ?Bye-bye Raffarin ... For him, the sum of the losses is considerable. As prime minister, he is condemned, just like Edith Cresson in 1992. And Jacques Chirac is hit by this defeat.?

Le Figaro (conservative, Paris): ?A punishing vote was expected. But nothing is definitive. The French have shown in the past their ability to correct the first round?s trend in the second round.?

La Provence (regional, Marseille): ?The PM knows the unwritten rule. When the Elysee is under high tension, the time to blow the fuse is not far away.?

Sud-Ouest (regional, Toulouse): ?The likely victory of Segolene Royale in Poitou-Charentes is a personal rebuff to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, whose position is weaker than ever. The urgent need for a major cabinet reshuffle is no mystery anymore.?