Sarkozy triumphs in EU poll as Socialists wilt

By Crispian Balmer

PARIS (Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party triumphed in Sunday's European parliamentary elections, handing the opposition Socialists a stinging defeat and bucking an EU-wide trend that saw ruling parties penalised in the vote.

Partial results indicated the centre-right UMP would win 28 percent of the vote with the Socialists slumping to 16.8 percent, an almost exact reversal of their performance in the last EU ballot in 2004.

The biggest surprise was provided by a coalition of Green politicians, led by 1968 student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who took some 16 percent of the vote, ensuring that environmental issues will jump up the political agenda.

Centrist Francois Bayrou, who came third in the 2007 presidential election, saw support for his MoDem party slump to some 8.5 percent, wrecking his hopes of building strong electoral momentum for another assault on Sarkozy.

The UMP's strong showing comes despite the economic downturn, which had hit Sarkozy's popularity, and is the first time a sitting president's party had come out ahead in a European election since 1979.

Government ministers said the result showed the country supported Sarkozy's reform programme, aimed at strengthening the economy and making its industry more competitive.

"We will continue to modernise France and we will need everyone," said Prime Minister Francois Fillon.

However, the record abstention rate of some 60 percent took some of the shine of the result, with pollsters saying such a low turnout was always likely to favour the right.