France's main opposition Socialist Party failed on Sunday to agree on a new leader to challenge right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy, its weekend congress ending in division and acrimony.
The congress was intended to agree policy lines and heal rifts that have rendered the Socialists ineffective as an opposition since Segolene Royal led them to a third successive presidential election defeat, against Sarkozy, 18 months ago.
Through all fluctuations in opinion polls, Sarkozy has launched domestic reforms and won a high international profile. Royal wants to unite the Socialists to fight back but rivals who blame her for the presidential defeat refused her leadership at the party congress in the eastern city of Reims.
"I'm really disappointed. They kept saying it was about ideas but really it was about personalities. We were supposed to emerge from this congress with a political line but we're more confused than before," said Nathalie Laporte, a party activist.
"I was shocked by the lack of respect between our leaders." A polarising figure, the glamorous Royal is seen by admirers as a force for renewal with mass appeal, while her detractors see her as a political lightweight with no consistency.
Her speech to the congress on Saturday brought half the audience to its feet to acclaim her while the other half jeered.
A poll published on Sunday in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper found only 32 percent of voters thought the party had good leaders and 27 percent thought it had a project for France.
"I'm ashamed for the Socialist Party," a frustrated Francois Hollande, the outgoing leader, told activists on Sunday morning.
PERSONALITY CLASHES:
In the first of three stages to renew leadership, members voted last week on competing "motions", or broad policy ideas. Royal's motion came first with just under 30 percent, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe scored 25 percent and Martine Aubry, a former minister best known as the author of the 35-hour working week, also scored 25 percent. Benoit Hamon, a younger leader from the left of the party, obtained 19 percent.
The four were supposed to come up with a compromise text and agree on a consensus leader at Reims, the second stage of the process, but it was painfully clear to everyone at the congress that personality clashes prevented this.
Delanoe, Aubry and Hamon are united only in their dislike of Royal, but could not agree on a single candidate to oppose her.
The third stage will be a vote, scheduled for Thursday, when party members will have to choose between Royal, Aubry and Hamon, the discouraged Delanoe having dropped out of the race.
Whoever wins will head a wounded party, facing the danger of a fourth consecutive defeat in a presidential election. The congress finished with speeches by the three candidates, who all denounced Sarkozy's economic policies, blaming market-friendly ideas for leading to the financial crisis gripping the country and worsening the plight of the poor. "We Socialists must all take to the streets together, supporting social protests," Aubry said. She received a standing ovation from thousands chanting "Martine! Martine!"
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