Pave: Election Heartbreaks III

Le jour 558 de Sarko

There were cases of cheating.

Manuel Valls,
Socialist functionary, mayor of Évry, and
député for the 1re circonscription de l'Essonne,
offering the only possible explanation
for his boss's loss at the ballot
(infra)

It's messy. Let's start here and slog forward.

FRENCH SOCIALISTS IN DISARRAY
AT END OF KEY GATHERING
The French Socialist Party Has Ended A Key Gathering
On The Verge Of Implosion And With Daggers Drawn,
As Would-be Leaders Jostled For Position Weeks Before
The Party Elects A New Chief.
PARIS August 31, 2008 (Telegraph)

SÉGOLÈNE ROYAL EMERGES AS LEADING CONTENDER
TO HEAD SOCIALIST PARTY
Former Socialist Presidential Candidate Wins Vote
Against Party Favourite, Bertrand Delanoë, The Mayor Of Paris
PARIS November 7, 2008 (Guardian)

SÉGOLÈNE ROYAL ON TOP IN A SACK OF VIPERS
The Failed Candidate For The French Presidency
Is Locked In A New Battle With Her Ex-lover For Their Party

PARIS November 9, 2008 (Times Online) - François Hollande, secretary-general of the Socialists for the past 11 years, must give up the post next weekend in the wake of a congress in Reims that was likened to a sack of vipers. He is determined not to cede power to Royal, 55, who announced last year that she was leaving him because he had had an affair with a political journalist.

Hollande had desperately wanted to run against Nicolas Sarkozy, the centre-right candidate who won the 2007 presidential contest. Instead the party selected Royal, the charismatic mother of four of Hollande’s children, and he has never forgiven her.

Yes. They hate each other.

He had hoped to get even by promoting as his replacement Bertrand Delanoë, the chain-smoking gay mayor of Paris. However, in Thursday’s voting for a series of manifestos presented by aspiring candidates, Delanoë trailed behind Royal.

... All the more mortifying for jowly, bespectacled Hollande – nicknamed Flanby after a brand of pudding – were suggestions that his support for Delanoë had damaged the mayor’s chances.

FRANCOISE "TASTY" HOLLANDE
Première secrétaire sortant du Parti socialiste
Dear God! He Does Look Like A Pudding!
[Photo source: Alice W.]

SÉGOLÈNE ROYAL LEADS RACE
TO BECOME FRENCH SOCIALIST PARTY LEADER

PARIS November 22, 2008 (Guardian) - France's Socialist party will today hold a run-off vote for its next leader, as Ségolène Royal and Martine Aubry battle to become the first woman to head the biggest party on the French left.

In the initial vote yesterday, first place went to Royal, the former presidential candidate who is promising to modernise the troubled and divided party.

Martine Aubry is the mayor of Lille, former Labor and Social Affairs Ministers in the Cresson and Jospin governments, respectively, a former député for the 5e circonscription du Nord (though she is not listed in the XIe législature on the NA site), and champion of the Loi Aubry, establishing France's ruinious 35-hour work week. A bulwark of old-school left-of-left socialism, Mdm. Aubry is in thick with the bosslings and princes of the Socialist establishment but not popular with the militants.

Despite a campaign by party heavyweights and members of the old guard, who dismissed Royal as a would-be messianic figure with a Joan of Arc complex, damaged by losing the last presidential election, she took 43% of the vote. But it was not a big enough majority to win outright.

Aubry...came second with 34%. The MEP Benoit Hamon took 22% and was knocked out of the next round.

Oh, if only every headline proved out. But it was not to be. Standardbearer, an adoring press, bikinitude -- there just wasn't enough to pull the 22 (later 10) votes needed to prevail.

FRENCH SOCIALISTS TALLY

PARIS November 22, 2008 (NYT) - Vote counting in a runoff election on Friday for a new leader of the French Socialist Party ended early Saturday with no clear winner. ... The party’s national secretary, Razzy Hamadi, had said earlier that the voting appeared to narrowly favor Ms. Aubry. Ms. Royal’s camp, however, refused to concede. A recount was expected on Saturday.

AUBRY WINS FRENCH SOCIALIST VOTE BY TINY MAJORITY

PARIS November 22, 2008 (Reuters) - Martine Aubry, the architect of France's 35-hour work week, has won the leadership battle for the French Socialist party by just 42 votes, the group said in a statement early on Saturday.

MARGIN IN SOCIALIST POLL 'NARROWS' TO 18 VOTES

PARIS November 22, 2008 (France 24) - Royal was about to celebrate her victory, when rumours late on Friday suggested Aubry had snatched the vote. “I won’t give up,” was Royal’s immediate reaction. Later, militants could be seen hurling abuse at each other outside the party’s headquarters. Official results came through in the early hours of the morning, handing the mayor of Lille 50.02% of the 134,784 votes cast and giving her a margin of just 42 ballots over her rival.

The Royal camp was quick to denounce “frauds” in local branches known to be Aubry strongholds. ... Yet, the winning side pointed out that representatives of the Royal camp had validated the vote in the branches where it was called into question. In response, they accused regions favouring Royal of vote-rigging.

No sooner had Aubry pledged to become "a leader for all Socialists" in a speech on Saturday evening, than a party branch in the country’s east flagged a vote-counting error, further reducing the gap to a mere 18 votes. Roselyne Febvre, FRANCE 24 political editor:

One can hardly imagine Ségolène Royal backing down. The hatred between the two women is vivid.

If you can't win on the first tour, and can't win in the run-off, if the recount doesn't find the necessary votes, if Providence will not hear your petition -- gentle skimmer, what can you do but demand a re-vote? Or possibly invoke civil war.

FRENCH SOCIALISTS ELECT AUBRY AS NEW HEAD;
ROYAL URGES NEW VOTE

PARIS November 22, 2008 (Bloomnerg) - Martine Aubry...beat Segolene Royal to become the new leader of the Socialist opposition party by a margin so narrow that Royal has called for a new vote. ... Royal "is calling for a new vote, given the disputed and disputable result," her lawyer Jean-Pierre Mignard told journalists in Paris today. Manuel Valls, a lawmaker backing Royal, accused Aubry’s camp of "cheating."

How embarrassing to win by so few votes. [Pause.] But how more so to lose by that same few. For losers there is no such thing as a close race. When the win margin is a handful of votes, well, then there has been cheating, fraud, dark dealings. However, if you are the winner by a handful of votes, then it was a hard fought campaign.

Let us imagine the vote is held again and the win shifts to Ségo by 18 votes or less. This will prompt the Aubry camp to call for yet another re-vote. The militants again dutifully re-cast their votes. Again the win shifts by 18 or less votes. Again there is a call for a re-vote. Thus the Socialists can occupy themselves with voting themselves back and forth until the next general election, when the public can vote them out.

PFFT (What is this?): Sore loser 3½ | Weak winner, but a winner 3 | Rayonnement français 0

Posted by Damian at November 23, 2008 06:45 AM