The battle for the soul of French socialism

It has not been a good week for the French Socialist Party. The party elected a new leader, the left-wing Martine Aubry, who beat her rival, former presidential candidate Segolene Royal, by a mere 42 votes. The wafer-thin majority prompted the centrist Royal to ask for a recount and accuse the other side of cheating. Legal action was threatened, the two sides traded insults and the party faced its worst crisis ever since it was formed in 1969.

The party's executive council soon approved Aubry's election and announced that her majority had actually increased to 102 votes out of the 134,800 cast. Royal reluctantly accepted that her rival had won, saying: "We managed to convince half, and maybe a little over half, of the Socialist Party even though we had the entire party establishment against us. We have waged a fine battle to renovate the party and that battle continues."

However, one faction of Royal's supporters still insisted that the Aubry camp cheated and intends to take legal action. Many observers are sceptical about the prospects of the party uniting behind its new leader, and this is music to the ears of President Nicolas Sarkozy as he continues with his ambitious reform programme, and eyes his re-election in 2012.

The French Socialist Party has long been plagued by factional in-fighting based on both ideology and personalities. François Mitterand more or less kept the party united until he left office in 1995 - he formed the modern Socialist Party in 1969 when he presided over the merger of a number of left-wing parties - but since then the party has struggled to come to terms with a changed political and economic scenario and to find a leader equal in stature to Mitterand.

Aubry and Royal have little respect for each other and it is indeed difficult to imagine them working together. Royal has already made it clear that she once again intends to be the party's presidential candidate, something the party has yet to decide upon.

Although it is normal in France and other continental European countries like Germany for parties to nominate candidates other than the leader of the party for the post of President or Chancellor, it would be interesting to see Aubry's reaction should Royal once again face Sarkozy in the presidential election.

Although some analysts believe that the election between these two candidates was more about style and personality, there are ideological differences. Aubry, daughter of former European Commission President Jacques Delors, is clearly on the left of the party. Throughout her campaign she emphasised that the Socialist Party should always be on the side of trade unions and the working classes and made no overtures to centrist or conservative voters.

Aubry's target audience were members of the Socialist Party and not the wider electorate, but her language hardly makes her a moderniser, which is exactly what the party needs if it is to become electable again. Furthermore, as Minister for Labour in Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's Socialist government from 1997 to 2001, she was the architect of the controversial 35-hour working week law, which even many Socialists now oppose.

Royal, who was defeated by Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election, presents herself as a moderniser and is positioned well in the centre of the party. She clearly wants a broader party and to reach out to non-traditional supporters. In last year's presidential election, she proposed to appoint the leader of the centrist MoDem Party, François Bayrou, as prime minister if she was elected, in return for Bayrou supporting her in the second round of voting. During the election for party leader, she proposed a parliamentary alliance with Bayrou's party.

Those who back Royal think she is capable of invigorating the party, but her opponents accuse her of betraying the party's core principles and of concentrating on image. Royal genuinely believes the party needs to change and understands that if it does not change it will remain in opposition.

She is also a charismatic politician who appeals to people outside the party. True, she lost last year's presidential election, but the party establishment did not enthusiastically back her and Sarkozy was always going to be a difficult candidate to defeat.

It will once again be an uphill struggle to beat Sarkozy, but Royal should still be the Socialist Party's candidate, and not Aubry, who is uninspiring and represents a throwback to the past. Unless the Socialist Party wants to suffer a fourth consecutive presidential defeat, it should end its factional in-fighting and appoint Royal its presidential candidate from now.

Aubry should concentrate on running the party while Royal should be given the task of updating party policy. The two will just have to work together and present a common front, if this is at all possible.