PARIS -- A year before the 2002 general and presidential elections, the results of the municipal and local elections that took place the last two Sundays represent a major development in French politics. They will not ease the relationship between President Jacques Chirac and his likely rival next year, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. Nor will they facilitate relations between the various factions of the right or the various components of the "plural left."

The polls had forecast a "pink wave," a victory of the left. If there was a wave, it's a blue one, since nationwide the right managed to win more votes than did the left. Despite the split between its two leaders, the far right managed to keep -- and strengthen its grip -- on all but one of its fortresses in the south. Some 40 towns shifted from left to right; seven took the opposite course.

The Communist Party registered a historic setback, losing Nimes, the only city of 100,000 inhabitants in which it was still in charge, and it lost a lot of ground in the industrial suburbs. Five Cabinet ministers who, against the prime minister's advice decided to run, were severely defeated.