Pascal Perrineau, a political scientist at Sciences-Po university, makes the point that the French almost always back strikes, particularly at the start.
ECONOMIST: France
2.
According to Pascal Perrineau, a political scientist, as many as 11.5m voters who had backed Mr Sarkozy for the presidency in 2007 failed to support the UMP this time.
ECONOMIST: The French voters blow a raspberry at their president