Nicolas Sarkozy Plots Post-Defeat Strategy As Rival Villepin Resurfaces

NICE, France (March 22) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose conservative party suffered a humiliating defeat in the second round of Sunday's regional elections, spent Monday sequestered at Elysée Palace plotting a new strategy that some are calling "Sarkozy 2.0."

Sarkozy now faces growing unrest within his own party as well as among French voters as he vows to push ahead with unpopular pension reform and spending cuts he claims are necessary for the nation's fiscal health.

Philippe Wojazer, Pool / AP

French President Nicolas Sarkozy casts his vote in regional elections Sunday.

Meanwhile, his emboldened archrival, former Prime Minister Dominique Villepin, immediately took advantage of the anti-Sarkozy election results by announcing plans to form a new political party.

The long-moribund French Socialist Party triumphed on Sunday, winning 53.8 percent of the vote nationwide. "The French have expressed their rejection of the politics of the president and the government," said Socialist party leader and rising star Martine Aubry, who called on the left to work to take over power at the national level.

Sarkozy was expected to begin reshuffling his cabinet to strengthen his administration and his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party during the remaining two years of his term.

Prime Minister François Fillon, who met with Sarkozy today as presidential security guards blocked access to Elysée Palace to reporters, blamed the recession and growing unemployment for his party's poor showing.

"These elections show that the French are worried," Fillon said. But at the same time, he warned that reforms aimed at France's generous social benefits will continue because the state can longer afford them.

Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin on March 19, 2010

Dale de la Rey, AFP/Getty Images

Former French Prime Minister Dominique Villepin plans to form a new political party. He was to announce details later in the week.

As much of the French press trumpeted the return of the long-struggling left-wing party, which remains rife with division despite Sunday's victory, Sarkozy's old nemesis surfaced as well.

Le Monde reported Sunday that Villepin, a protégé of former President Jacques Chirac who lost a bitter battle with Sarkozy to succeed him, plans to announce the "name and tone" of the new political party on Thursday.

Le Monde also cited a new poll saying that French voters want Sarkozy to act "more presidential" and that they prefer Villepin as the UMP's leader to Sarkozy.

Sunday's elections involved 26 regional councils, from the French mainland to provinces in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean.