Paris ? President Jacques Chirac’s government flunked its first electoral test since taking power two years ago, suffering stinging defeats Sunday in regional elections seen as a vote of censure against painful economic reforms.

The stunning rebuke, which breathed life back into France’s left-wing opposition, will increase pressure on Chirac to reshuffle his conservative government and perhaps even ditch his prime minister, the unpopular Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

One of the few silver linings for the government was the moderate showing by the far-right, anti-immigration National Front. It polled just 13 to 14 percent of the vote — and less for its star candidate in the Paris region.

But the day belonged to the left. It polled between 49 and 50 percent of the vote and claimed 12 new regions, taking the total number under its leadership to at least 21 out of a possible 26. They include overseas territories in the Carib-bean where results were expected later.

Chirac’s right, in contrast, polled between 37 and 38 percent and clung on to just the Alsace region in northeast France and possibly the island of Corsica. Government ministers who hoped to lead regional councils were all defeated.

The hammering left Chirac’s government in a bind. On the one hand, European Union partners are pressuring France to rein in its budget deficit to within EU limits. But at the polls, voters showed their reluctance to swallow the bitter pill of cuts to France’s treasured public services and welfare protections.

Turnout was high, with around two-thirds of the country’s nearly 42 million voters casting ballots.

A somber-looking Raffarin acknowledged the defeat but defended his government’s record, saying it has stemmed crime, reformed the creaking state pension system and stabilized unemployment, still running at close to 10 percent.

“It’s not enough, I know. The French told us clearly so today,” he said. But “reforms must continue simply because they are necessary,” he insisted.

The defeat marked a dramatic turnaround from a year ago, when Chirac was winning praise within France for his staunch opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. His government’s reforms have deeply divided France, chipped away at his popularity and sparked protests and strikes by everyone from theater workers to doctors, transport employees to state-funded scientists.