Civil war loomed among France’s feuding Socialists after a party leadership ballot ended yesterday in a virtual dead heat between the two female contenders amid accusations of cheating and calls for a rerun.

Martine Aubry, the 58-year-old mayor of Lille, declared victory by a margin of only 42 votes that was immediately contested by Ségolène Royal, her bitter rival, who demanded another ballot.

The official results gave Aubry, a former minister, 50.02% of the 134,784 votes cast by party members, compared with 49.98% for the 55-year-old Royal, the party’s presidential candidate last year.

Royal’s supporters complained of “irregularities”, vowing to challenge the result. “We contest these results,” said Julien Dray, an MP and Royal backer. “There are things that don’t add up. The only possible solution is another vote.”

Manuel Valls, another senior party figure, said that Royal, who is president of Poitou-Charentes region, had been the victim of “cheating” and warned of a possible “schism” in the party should such a close result be allowed to stand.

François Hollande, the outgoing party secretary who is also the father of Royal’s four children, called for a session of the party’s leadership council this week to examine complaints and, preferably, validate the result. He has resented Royal ever since she emerged as the party’s presidential champion against Nicolas Sarkozy, believing he would have made a much better candidate.

“No one can deny that the situation is complicated,” said François Lamy, an Aubry adviser, “but no one can deny that Martine Aubry is the new first secretary of the Socialist party.”

The bickering has set the stage for protracted upheaval among the embattled Socialists who have not won a presidential election for two decades and whose last big parliamentary victory was in 1997.

None has enjoyed the spectacle of their farcical floundering more than Sarkozy, who triumphed over Royal in last year’s presidential election: there had been concerns in his camp that the Socialists might emerge reinvigorated from their much-vaunted leadership congress in Reims, the champagne capital, last weekend.

Instead they tore each other apart: neither Aubry nor Royal, whose mutual loathing is legendary, seemed capable of salvaging the historic party of the French left, let alone turning it into an effective opposition.

Aubry, the daughter of Jacques Delors, the former president of the European commission, is not a popular figure. A labour minister in the last Socialist government, she pioneered the law that reduced the French working week to 35 hours more than a decade ago. It is blamed today for greatly undermining French productivity and has been largely dismantled by Sarkozy.

She benefited, however, from hostility to Royal among senior members of the party who disliked her evangelical style and launched a “stop Ségo” campaign that involved circulating suggestions that she was mentally unstable.

When Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, withdrew from the race he urged supporters to back Aubry rather than her “lightweight” rival who earlier this year had changed her hairdo to prance on the stage in jeans like a rock star.

Benoît Hamon, a fourth contender, was eliminated on Thursday in a first round of voting in which the two female foes emerged as the front-runners. Hamon also urged his backers to support Aubry, which would have given her a clear majority, but it appears that they ignored him, resulting in yesterday’s virtual tie.

Senior figures in the party watched the battle with increasing despair. “This is a catastrophe,” said one.

“Neither of them has legitimacy. Neither will be able to lead,” said a party official.

One figure who absented himself from the battle might yet offer hope for the party. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, is believed to have his eye on the presidency in 2012. Yet he faces ridicule as an “office groper” after complaints that he had a relationship with an employee in Washington.

42
Margin of victory for Martine Aubry from nearly 135,000 votes

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