THE most damaging blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy this week might ap-pear to be the loss of his majority in the Senate. On September 25th control of France's upper house swung to the left for the first time in the Fifth Republic. This was not a direct test of popular sentiment: the senatorial electoral college is made up mainly of local and regional councillors, and the Socialists have won many local elections in recent years. But it was a sym-bolic knock for Mr Sarkozy just seven months before a presidential election, and it has crushed morale in his party.
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