Sarkozy's UMP party will face little resistance to the rash of measures he plans to introduce within weeks to make France's sluggish economy more competitive and less protective.

But Sunday's legislative runoff suggests that voters in France, long driven by leftist ideals, wanted to send the hard-driving and US-friendly president a message that his powers are not absolute, and to keep their concerns in mind.

Some have even predicted mass street protests like those that stymied former President Jacques Chirac's efforts to free up the economy or an eruption of violence in France's housing projects if Sarkozy goes too far, too fast.

"The French showed they did not want to give all of the power to Nicolas Sarkozy," former Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou, a Socialist, said Sunday night.

Sarkozy's party and its allies won 346 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly, which was fewer than the 359 seats the UMP used to have. The opposition left took a better-than-expected 226 seats total, led by the Socialists' 185 seats a considerable improvement to the party's 149 seats in the last parliament.