Word: umps
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...battle between French President Jacques Chirac and his hyper-ambitious Finance Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, don't bet on seeing a white flag. Last week France's worst-kept secret was confirmed by the news that Sarkozy will seek the presidency of Chirac's own Union for a Popular Movement (ump) party. The wildly popular Sarkozy, a shoo-in to grab the ump's leadership position in November, will try to use the party's mighty electoral machine to win the 2007 presidential election himself. Chirac hasn't yet said if he'll run for a third term. For months...
...names go, "union for a presidential Majority" was too baldly utilitarian for the fractious alliance of conservative parties cobbled together to secure President Jacques Chirac's victory in the May 2002 election. But when the party later opted to keep the initials - ump - but change the name to Union for a Popular Movement, the idea certainly wasn't to launch a popular movement against the President himself. Lately, however, it's beginning to seem that way. Ever since the French right was slaughtered in March 28 regional elections, frustration within the ump has been deep - and its founding father...
...NICOLAS DUPONT-AIGNAN, UMP...
...beat. Sarkozy may well run for the presidency of the party at its next general convention in November. If he doesn't run, he'll certainly put up a "sarkoziste" for that post, running against a Chirac loyalist. And that doesn't begin to exhaust the currents within the ump. Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, 43, for example, says he wants to lead the party back to its Gaullist roots. "The President's positions on the constitution and on Turkey are untenable - the party doesn't want to go with him," he says. "We need to put France first." Many younger conservatives...
...Socialists' first big win in two humiliating, ineffective years. But Cambadélis and his colleagues know their victory has little to do with any surge in the party's electoral appeal and a lot to do with rising public disdain for the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (ump) of conservative President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. "This isn't a vote for the Socialists," says political commentator Alain Duhamel. "It's an expression of discontent with the liberal policies of the government." This spring is shaping up to be the ump's season of discontent...