this would put him against cardiologist Salem Kacet of the UMP, who had operated on him in 1999 and saved his life. The two candidates had become close friends. Vignoble said that it was impossible for him to come to any other decision. Nevertheless, Kacet still failed to take the seat, the winner being the Socialist Dominique Baert. French Communist Party The Communists hoped that their vote would hold up following their lowest percentage vote ever (1.93%) in the presidential race in May. While polls seemed unfriendly to the Communists, with some predicting less than 10 seats for the party, the second round's left surge prevented a massive Communist defeat. Although losing seats, they were able to gain or hold 15 seats. However, the PCF lost previously safe seats. VAT Polemic During the electoral TV programme of the first round, the former Socialist Prime Minister Laurent Fabius called out to the Minister of Economy Jean-Louis Borloo about the project of a new VAT to finance the social security. Borloo confirmed it was examined by the government. This new tax was the main theme of campaign between the two rounds. It was criticized by the left because it could rise the prices for all the housekeepings. This project was perceived as contradictory to candidate Sarkozy's promise to be "President of the purchasing power". According to the former UMP Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, in re-mobilizing the left-wing voters, this controversy caused the defeat of around 60 UMP candidates in the second round. In this, if the right stood majority, the left won 49 seats since 2002. Accused to be responsible of this result, Jean-Louis Borloo was nominated Minister of Ecology, replacing Alain Juppé, beaten in his constituency. Results |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" ! colspan="4" rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;"| Parties and coalitions ! colspan="3"| First round ! colspan="3"| Second round ! colspan="3"| Total |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" ! width="75"| Votes ! width="30"| % ! width="30"| Seats ! width="75"| Votes ! width="30"| % ! width="30"| Seats ! width="30"| Seats ! width="30"| % |- | style="background-color:#B9DAFF;border-bottom-style:hidden" rowspan="4"| | style="background-color:" width=1 | | style="text-align:left;"| Union for a Popular Movement | UMP | 10,289,737 || 39.54 || 98 | 9,460,710 || 46.36 || 215 | 313 || 54.25 |- | style="background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;"| New Centre | NC | 616,440 || 2.37 || 8 | 433,057 || 2.12 || 14 | 22 || 3.81 |- | style="background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;"| Miscellaneous Right | DVD |