Defeated Juppe says will quit French government

By Anna Willard

PARIS (Reuters) - The career of France's de-facto deputy prime minister, Alain Juppe, was in ruins again on Sunday after losing a parliamentary election and stepping down from a powerful cabinet post he held for just a few weeks.

Juppe, a former prime minister, was handed the energy and environmental portfolio last month -- a nomination that marked his return to top flight politics after his 2004 conviction in a party corruption scandal.

But his reappearance on the national stage was short-lived after he lost to a little-known Socialist candidate in his Bordeaux constituency in Sunday's legislative ballot.

"As of tomorrow morning, I will present my resignation as minister of ecology and sustainable development to the president and the prime minister," a sombre-looking Juppe said after the official result was announced.

Juppe's defeat is the first major blow for President Nicolas Sarkozy's newly-installed government. He is a political heavyweight with years of experience and his absence from the government will leave a significant hole in Sarkozy's team.

Sarkozy is expected replace him in the next few days.

"It's bad news for our government and for the country," said former conservative government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope.

Bordeaux city hall said Juppe won 49.07 percent of the vote against 50.93 percent for Socialist Michele Delaunay.

Ironically, ministers are not allowed to sit in the National Assembly lower house of parliament, and Juppe only stood for election to try to consolidate his power base with the idea of handing over his seat to an ally standing on the same ticket.

But Prime Minister Francois Fillon had said that any minister who lost their legislative contest would have to quit. Juppe was the only one of 11 ministers to fail the test.

BACK TO THE GARDEN

Juppe, once seen as the heir apparent to former president Jacques Chirac, was prime minister from 1995-1997 when he pushed unsuccessfully for bold reforms to France's generous pension system, prompting strikes and sending his popularity tumbling.

He joked last month that he could apply his ecological views to his garden if defeat was to cut short his ministerial career.

Despite his loss, Juppe remains mayor of Bordeaux, a post to which he was elected for the third time last year. But he said on Sunday he would meet his advisers to discuss his position.

"We will decide together what is the best thing to do," Juppe said.