It’s the first round of voting in French local elections – and another bad day for Jacques Chirac and, quite possibly, an even worse one for his prime minister. Exit polls are showing the mainstream Right on around 33%, the Left won about 40% and the National Front look to have taken roughly 17%. The low vote for the current government reflects popular distaste for recent attempts to bring France’s economy into, say, the mid-1980s (the 21st Century will take a little longer), while the tally for the National Front, roughly unchanged since the last Presidential election, speaks for itself. The second round of voting will be next Sunday.