KEY POINTS:
Former presidential candidate Segolene Royal will try to impose herself as France's leader of the opposition this weekend, defying enemies within her own party and her slumping popularity with the wider electorate.
Against expectations, Royal, 55, has decided to campaign for the official leadership of France's main opposition party, the Parti Socialiste, at what seems certain to be a bloody and divisive party congress in Reims.
And she will try to convert the managerial post, now held by her former partner Francois Hollande, into something more broadly emblematic and political.
Her decision follows her success in a referendum of Socialist Party members last week which placed her policy manifesto marginally ahead of those of two centre-left rivals and one from the hard left.
But divisions within the party remain as deep and vicious as ever.
Strong anti-Royal feeling is almost the only force which transcends ideological differences within the Parti Socialiste. It will have been bolstered by an opinion poll yesterday which assessed her support in the wider French electorate at a paltry 17 per cent.
Socialist Party members have been casting envious glances at the emergence of a charismatic young figure on the left of American politics. Whatever the outcome in Reims, the destructive in-fighting between old and largely discredited Socialist barons seems certain to continue.
Royal, defeated in the second round of the presidential election in May last year, remains convinced that she is best placed to challenge President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012. She told a meeting of her closest and most senior supporters on Tuesday that no one would have disputed her right to lead the Socialists if she were a man.
The weekend vote is to choose a new party leader, not necessarily to pick a presidential candidate. But Royal's opponents know that, if she wins, it would be very difficult to block her candidacy in 2012.
Royal has little interest - or aptitude - for the day-to-day running of the party. She will therefore propose that the title of the leader should be changed to "president", with a deputy to manage party business.
The present first secretary of the party is Hollande, Royal's estranged former partner and the father of her four children.
He is not running again but is thought to harbour presidential ambitions of his own.
In last week's battle of policy motions, Holland took the side of the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe. Delanoe had been expected to top the internal party referendum but scored a calamitous 25 per cent. Reasons for his failure, despite his excellent record as mayor, may include a provincial move against Paris and prejudice against his long-avowed homosexuality.
SARKOZY RIVALS
Possible challengers to President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012:
* Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 59, the former Socialist Finance Minister and now the head of the International Monetary Fund, topped a poll of possible left-wing challengers to Sarkozy yesterday.
* Despite a much-publicised affair, Strauss-Kahn (with 27 per cent) is favourite to challenge the President in 2012.
* Bertrand Delanoe got 21 per cent.
* Segolene Royal is supported by only 17 per cent of the French electorate.
* Strauss-Kahn will not be at this weekend's Socialist congress in Reims. He will be at a meeting of the G20 leading and emerging economies in Washington.
- INDEPENDENT
