Vote-rigging claim: book contends French socialist leadership should have gone to Royal, writes GRAINNE HARRINGTONin Paris
MARTINE AUBRY, leader of the French Socialist Party, is accused of rigging her own election for leadership of the party in a new book published in France yesterday. The book, entitled Hold-ups, Scams and Betrayals, claims that a highly organised system of vote rigging by Ms Aubry’s allies ensured that she won a tight race against former presidential candidate Ségolène Royal last November.
Authors Antonin André and Karim Rissouli claim that the election, which ended in Ms Aubry winning by just 102 votes, should actually have gone to Ms Royal, whom party elders have been attempting to sideline since she lost the presidential race against Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007.
Extracts of the book, published on the website of right-leaning news magazine le Point, detail allegations of Aubry supporters filling ballot boxes with votes in favour of their candidate, and of Royal votes being wrongly attributed to Aubry.
In one passage, an Aubry aide is reported to have called a local party secretary on the night of the second round to instruct him to rig the contest. According to the authors’ account, the orders were explicit: “The gloves are coming off . . . stuff the ballot boxes,” the aide was told.
The result had already been contested by Royal, a favourite with younger party members, who put her ahead by eight points in the first round of voting.
A former employment minister, and architect of France’s 35-hour work week, Ms Aubry had the support of the core of party veterans, and the party council later confirmed her slim lead in the final count.
Senior party members were quick to dismiss yesterday’s publication. François Lamy, an adviser to the party leader, called the book “a cut and paste job of things already written”, while Martine Aubry said that she would not be reading the book. “I prefer to wait for the film,” she joked in le Monde newspaper yesterday.
Following a brief truce between the two women, Ms Royal seems determined to use the revelations to reopen hostilities.
In an interview with France 2 television on Wednesday, Ms Royal said “I felt a shock when I thought of the thousands of party members who saw their votes stolen. We knew that there had been cheating, but not on this scale, and not with this level of organisation.” She added that she had not yet finished reading the book, but promised “a solemn declaration” in the coming days.
The scandal threatens to throw the opposition party into yet further chaos, following a resounding defeat in the European elections this summer. Their historically low score led to calls to rebuild the party’s base and bring recalcitrant members to heel. At the Party Conference in La Rochelle last month, Ms Royal sat in the front row as Ms Aubry gave her speech. But the show of support was short-lived. With regional elections approaching in early 2010, the party is already struggling to present a united front.