Positie Raffarin onder druk na zware verkiezingsnederlaag regeringspartij (en)

Pressure is mounting on French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin to resign after another poor showing at the polls.

His centre-right UMP party was battered at the ballot box, scoring only 16.64 percent of the votes and securing just 18 MEPs.

By contrast, the opposition socialist party received almost 29 percent and will have 32 representatives in the new Parliament.

This electoral reverse follows another catastrophic defeat in the regional elections, held in March, which was seen as a protest vote against Mr Raffarin, whose government has been pushing through a package of pension and welfare reforms.

Football comments

And Mr Raffarin is also under attack for "cynicism" after mentioning France's 2-1 last-minute victory over England in the European football championships, but neglecting to mention the European elections.

Renewing his calls for Mr Raffarin's resignation, the head of the Socialist Party, Francois Hollande said, "I thought there was a sort of disrespect on the part of the prime minister to comment (on Monday evening) on the result of the French football team and to forget to comment on the result of the UMP".

According to Mr Hollande, "Mr Raffarin's decision to resign should have taken place the day after the regional elections. But the President of the Republic [Jacques Chirac] did not want to take this decision and this is something I regret".

Mr Raffarin retorted in French daily Le Figaro, "when I see the situation of Tony Blair or of Gerhard Schröder, I say to myself that we are not looking at an exception francaise".

Both Mr Blair and Mr Schröder suffered an electoral defeat on Sunday night.

However, the prime minister continues to enjoy the support of Mr Chirac who said, according to Le Monde, that Mr Raffarin "should continue and should continue his work".