KEY POINTS:
PARIS - The struggling presidential campaign of Segolene Royal drifted further into confusion and internal party bickering yesterday.
One of the Socialist candidate's top advisers has quit amid accusations of "amateurism" and "disorganisation" in her campaign.
New opinion polls suggested a landmark speech by Royal at the weekend - including a 100-point "pact" with the French people _ had failed to revive her floundering attempt to become France's first woman President.
The Socialist party's chief economic strategist, Eric Besson, stormed out of a party meeting on Thursday after quarrelling with Francois Hollande, the party leader - and Royal's partner. Besson is reported to have protested against "zig-zags in strategy" and "idiocies" by other Royal advisers who wanted to ban public discussion of the cost of new, and expanded, social programmes announced by Royal on Sunday.
To add further insult, Royal was booed by school pupils when she visited the French rugby team training south of Paris.
It has been a disastrous couple of days for Royal, in a week that was supposed to mark a more aggressive phase in her run for the presidency.
Surveys taken since the weekend still place her six to eight points behind her chief rival, the centre-right candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, in voting intentions for the second round of the elections in April and May.
Hopes of re-launching her campaign - or preventing a complete melt-down - now rest on Royal's performance in a two-hour prime time TV question-and-answer session on Tuesday. Sarkozy's appearance with the same "jury" of voters two weeks ago was regarded as a great success. Royal cannot afford to stumble.
Bad news
One of Segolene Royal's chief economic advisers has quit amid accusations of "amateurism".
Landmark speech failed to revive her floundering campaign.
Booed by school children when she visited the training ground of the France rugby team south of Paris.
- INDEPENDENT
