**President Sarkozy’s centre-right party has suffered a heavy defeat in the French regional elections, early projections of the voting suggest.**Exit polls suggest the Socialist-led opposition alliance took 54% of the vote with Mr Sarkozy’s UMP on 36%.
If confirmed the results leave the UMP in control of only one of France’s 22 regions, the Alsace region in the east.
These elections are the last major electoral test in France before the presidential election in 2012.
A poll now suggests that 57% of people would like to see a change of government after these regional polls.
Although these elections are meant to be about regional issues such as public transport, high unemployment and resentment over plans to reform several sectors including the judicial and pension systems have prompted many French people to use their ballot to punish the government.
In the first round ballot less than half of France bothered to vote - and that cost President Sarkozy’s right-wing party dearly.
The UMP won just over a quarter of the vote, while the opposition Socialists, combined with other Leftist parties, took 50%.
Many people are angry that Mr Sarkozy’s election promises - to make ordinary people richer and to make France more competitive - have failed to come good, says the BBC’s Emma Jane Kirby in Paris.
With three million people currently out of work, France is now suffering its highest level of unemployment in decades, while a series of unpopular reforms has prompted numerous strikes and protest over recent months.
Mr Sarkozy has suggested the possibility of a pause in the pace of reforms after the elections. He may also reshuffle his cabinet, some analysts have said.