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Cage Aux Folles

France's Socialists Sink into Chaos

A disputed vote for party chair threatens to plunge France's Socialist Party into political insignificance. A winner will be certified on Tuesday, but unifying the party will be difficult no matter who comes out on top.

After losing a high-stakes presidential election to Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, Segolene Royal is back in the headlines after refusing to accept the verdict of a razor-thin vote to determine who will become head of France's Socialist Party (PS). In results made public on Saturday evening, Royal trailed her opponent, Martine Aubry, the Mayor of Lille, by just 42 votes out of 134,784 cast, a margin of 0.04 percent. A full 40 percent of registered party members didn't participate at all. Both sides are accusing the other of voter fraud and strong-arm tactics.

Aubry, a former labor minister aligned with the party's left-wing old guard -- a group commonly referred to as the "Elephants" -- called upon her opponent to concede on Saturday even as Royal appeared on television declaring she would "undoubtedly win" after all the votes were certified. On Sunday, a flood of official complaints were filed alleging irregularities in the vote tallies, especially in the city of Lille, Aubry's home base. Aubry's supporters, for their part, accused Royal's forces of rigging the vote in certain precincts in southern France and in overseas territories.

An official "Counting Commission" including representatives from both campaigns is set to meet on Monday in Paris to rule on all voter challenges. They will then make a recommendation to the party's National Council which is scheduled to certify a winner on Tuesday. According to a commentary in Le Monde, it is virtually inconceivable that the National Council would overturn the result without being instructed to do so by the Counting Commission.

On Monday Royal told France Inter, a French radio program, that she had "full faith" in the work of the Counting Commission but said if the final result were within 10 votes, a revote would be necessary, regardless of the winner.

A Fractious Farce

The French media, for its part, is looking on with a mixture of impish delight and embarrassed disgust. Le Monde has already dubbed the contest between Aubry and Royal "une election a la floridienne," -- a biting reference to the Florida recount that tarnished the US presidential election in 2000.

Complicating the battle and fuelling the gossip-mill surrounding the story is a healthy dose of family drama: Royal and Aubry are competing to replace long-time party chief Francois Hollande, who happens to be Royal's estranged partner and the father of her four children. In the first round of voting, Hollande threw his support behind Bertrand Delanoe, the popular mayor of Paris, and it has been difficult for him to escape the impression that he is working to undermine the bid of his one-time lover.

To many commentators, this latest controversy looks like the nail in the coffin for a party which for years has been caught in a dizzying downward spiral. The PS hasn't won a national election since 1997, and it nearly split in two in 2005 over France's referendum on the European Constitution. As Aubry herself warned earlier this month, "if we can't get our act together… it is perhaps the end of the Socialist party."

cpg -- with wire reports