Sarkozy triumphs in EU poll

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy select ballots before casting their votes during the European Parliament election in Paris June 7, 2009.

PARIS (Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party triumphed in Sunday's European parliamentary elections, handing the opposition Socialists a stinging defeat and bucking an EU-wide trend that saw ruling parties penalized in the vote.

Partial results indicated the center-right UMP would win 28 percent of the vote with the Socialists slumping to 16.8 percent, an almost exact reversal of their performance in the last EU ballot in 2004.

The biggest surprise was provided by a coalition of Green politicians, led by 1968 student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who took some 16 percent of the vote, ensuring that environmental issues will jump up the political agenda.

Centrist Francois Bayrou, who came third in the 2007 presidential election, saw support for his MoDem party slump to some 8.5 percent, wrecking his hopes of building strong electoral momentum for another assault on Sarkozy.

The UMP's strong showing comes despite the economic downturn, which had hit Sarkozy's popularity, and is the first time a sitting president's party had come out ahead in a European election since 1979.

Government ministers said the result showed the country supported Sarkozy's reform program, aimed at strengthening the economy and making its industry more competitive.

"We will continue to modernize France and we will need everyone," said Prime Minister Francois Fillon.

However, the record abstention rate of some 60 percent took some of the shine of the result, with pollsters saying such a low turnout was always likely to favor the right.

SOCIALIST TEARS

Despite this, the Socialists admitted they had suffered a humiliating defeat, paying the price for years of ferocious party infighting that has meant they have failed to win a presidential election in France since 1988.

"We are not yet credible," said party leader Martine Aubry, who struggled to hold back her tears. "The Socialists need a major renovation," she added.

Aubry won the party leadership last year after a close and bitter battle with the Socialist's presidential candidate Segolene Royal. The wounds from that fight have not yet healed, but Aubry ruled out standing down in the wake of the loss.

The opposition was splintered on Sunday between various center-left and hard-left parties. Put together, all groups which openly oppose Sarkozy won a majority, suggesting the president might be in trouble if they managed to join forces for national elections.

However, such an alliance looks unlikely and Sarkozy will especially rejoice in the disastrous showing from Bayrou -- a man whom polls have suggested might be able to beat him if they went head-to-head in the second round of a presidential vote.

Bayrou's campaign came off the rails spectacularly on Thursday night when he had an ill-tempered clash on television with the impish Cohn-Bendit, where he appeared mean-spirited.

A glum-looking Bayrou admitted on Sunday night that he had made a mistake in the debate and said he had learnt his lesson.

For Cohn-Bendit, a German national who was expelled from France after the May 1968 uprising, the result was a stunning success and was bound to raise the profile of green politics.

However, the maverick ecologist said he had no ambitions to get further involved in national politics.

"I'm going to give you a scoop. I am not French. I will not stand at the presidential election," he told France 2 TV.

(Editing by Matthew Jones)