A weekend of strife has brought the French Socialist Party to its knees, setting the stage for a leadership showdown this week between two female enemies: Ségolène Royal, the former presidential candidate, and Martine Aubry, a former leftwing Cabinet minister.

The pair emerged in front yesterday from the wreckage of a party conference at Rheims that collapsed into a festival of loathing between Ms Royal's upstart camp and an old guard now backing Ms Aubry, 58.

Ms Royal, 55, finished second in last year's presidential election but, for much of the party executive, she remains a lightweight usurper with an evangelical streak. After being drowned out by jeering at the conference, she appealed in vain for an end to the internecine bloodshed. "We will have to forget all the unpleasant and at times violent words, erase them and one day forgive each other," she said.

The former presidential contender is popular at the grass roots as a charismatic modern politician - unlike Ms Aubry, who is seen by many as an old-guard warhorse.