A vote to choose the leader of the French Socialist opposition has been won by Martine Aubry, the party says. A former minister and current mayor of Lille, Ms Aubry is best known as the architect of 35-hour work week. Official results say she defeated ex-presidential candidate Segolene Royal by 42 votes, a razor-thin margin. Ms Royal is contesting the result. The party has been divided over whether to move toward the political centre or hold to traditional leftist beliefs.
A vote to choose the leader of the French Socialist opposition has been won by Martine Aubry, the party says.
A former minister and current mayor of Lille, Ms Aubry is best known as the architect of 35-hour work week.
Official results say she defeated ex-presidential candidate Segolene Royal by 42 votes, a razor-thin margin. Ms Royal is contesting the result.
The party has been divided over whether to move toward the political centre or hold to traditional leftist beliefs.
The question is can Royal take the hint? Even if this was "shenanigans" she must get in line for the party. If she cannot do that it is personal and the PS is not a personal vehicle for her but allegedly a major political party.
Sarkozy must be giggling.
There's plenty of time before the next election. Better to do the recounts, investigate any shenanigans and lay the doubts to rest. Then when Royal loses anyway she (and her supporters) will have less grounds to complain... and eventually will get behind the other candidate...
This, in contrast, is rightly described as a razor-thin margin. At 42 votes, there can be a dispute. Close enough for accusations of fraud to resonate with the two bases. It's sort of like comparing Florida 2000 with Ohio 2004: I've little doubt there was fraud in Ohio, but I still think that, if we could've waved a magic wand and made the fraud go away, Bush would've won Ohio. Florida, on the other hand, was pretty clearly won via fraud, in my opinion.
The fortunate thing is that they have, I think, quite a bit of time before the next election, so the opportunity to heal whatever wounds are left is at least there. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
