Word: ps
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...Rivals on both the left and right have noted that the result still means more than 70% of voters backed parties hostile to Sarkozy and his Cabinet. True, but it brings little comfort to the crowded landscape of government opponents - especially the Socialist Party (PS), whose position as the left's leading political force is now in question. The faction-riven Socialists won just 16.5%, far short of the 28.9% it won in European elections in 2004 and dangerously close to its worst showing ever...
...will be very difficult for Royal supporters to obtain any Floridian-style recounts - much less win an entirely new vote. That means Aubry, a former Labor and Social Affairs minister and architect of France's now-defunct 35 hour work-week, becomes the first female leader in PS history. Her objective in that post: constructing a Socialist platform rooted in more traditionally leftist policies to win back voters who flocked to Green and Communist parties after years of the PS's centrist drift. She then hopes to build a coalition of all leftist parties to finally mount a challenge...
...change characteristic of Royal. Still, even if Aubry's main differences with Royal, 55, are largely about style rather than political orientation or objective, she's proven to be just as polarizing as her rival. That means the tight result will find Aubry trying to lead just as many PS members who love her as those who hate her with a passion...
...Perhaps more troubling still, anti-Royal forces often accused the ex-presidential candidate of only wanting the PS leadership job to lock up the party's standard-bearing spot in the 2012 race to challenge President Nicolas Sarkozy. Though beaten narroely for the top Socialist post, Royal shouldn't be expected to knuckle under to Aubry's expectedly tight rule, nor cast off her 2012 presidential ambitions. (See pictures of Sarkozy's trip to London...
...resounding mandate to back her up when challenged," says Pascal Perrineau, director for the Center for Study of French Political Life in Paris. "The second problem is, Ségolène Royal is a very determined and strong politician who believes she's the person to lead the PS back to national power. She won't simply fold up her plans and projects, sit down, and be quiet...