Socialists and allies win first round of French elections

Left-wing and green parties in France won a total of more than 46% of the vote compared to 34% for the centre-right UMP party, interior ministry figures showed.

The outcome of the polls is expected to determine the extent and pace of reform under the newly-elected French leader.

Run-offs are to be held next week. The turnout nationwide was a modest 57%.

France's 46 million eligible voters have been picking representatives for 577 seats in the National Assembly.

TNS Sofres, Ipos and OpinonWay pollsters agreed that the Socialists and their Green allies might win as few as 283 seats or potentially as many as 347. However, potential allies in the anti-capitalist Left Front would take 13-20 seats and ensure a majority.

The communist-backed Left Front, led by Jean-Luc Melenchon, won 6.9% of the vote.

The left is expected to have majority in the new parliament and that will ensure that President Francois  Hollande can force through the ambitious tax and spend policies that he has set out.

There is certainly a downturn in support for the conservative UMP. It is a symbolic win for the left, they hold the Senate, key regional administrations and now also the lower assembly so he has considerable power to push through these reforms.

It is a win for Hollande, but not perhaps as big a win - symbolically - as he might have wanted. He is only neck and neck with the UMP - and will need the support of allies on the left and, perhaps, even the support of the Left Front, the far-left party.

They are eurosceptic and anti-globalisation and could cause problems for him, particularly when it comes to spending cuts that he will have to enact if he is to meet the promises he set out to Brussels and to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The election also saw a surge in support for Marine Le Pen's far right National Front, which won almost 14% of votes - way beyond the 4% it achieved in the last parliamentary election of 2007.

However, under France's first-past-the-post system, that would give the party only three parliamentary seats at best and possibly none at all.