France: The French prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, apologised to the socialist party leader, François Hollande, yesterday a day after a personal attack on Hollande led to calls for Mr de Villepin's resignation.
But in view of his record low 23 per cent approval rating and an avalanche of almost weekly crises, Mr de Villepin may find it difficult to hold on to office until presidential and legislative elections next year.
Mr de Villepin turned to Mr Hollande in the National Assembly yesterday and said he'd criticised the socialist's "attitude" the previous day. "In no event did I want to engage in personal attacks, which I condemn. If certain words hurt you personally, I regret it and withdraw them."
As the prime minister spoke, cries of "Adieu", "Leave!" and "Resign!" rose from the opposition benches.
More seriously for Mr de Villepin, his own right-wing majority has all but deserted him.
On Tuesday, the head of government lost his temper when Mr Hollande called him "irresponsible" in his handling of a series of crises.
"I denounce, Monsieur Hollande, the facileness, and I would even say, looking at you, the cowardice, the cowardice of your attitude," the prime minister said, adding: "Yes, Monsieur Hollande, the cowardice."
After a 15-minute uproar during which ushers had to physically protect Mr de Villepin, the speaker of the National Assembly shut down Tuesday's session. In the aftermath of the incident, several right-wing deputies called for the prime minister's sacking.
"I call for the departure of the prime minister. He has to go," said UMP deputy Christine Boutin. The centre-right UDF leader, François Bayrou, called for "an end to this pathetic collapse" and demanded early elections.
Last week Mr de Villepin decided to postpone until the autumn a vote on the privatisation of the French gas company GDF when it became apparent that his own majority would not support him. The UMP, founded in 2002 as President Jacques Chirac's party, has since been taken over by Mr de Villepin's rival Nicolas Sarkozy.
Last winter's crisis over the "first job contract", which Mr de Villepin withdrew after weeks of street protests and riots, marked the real start of the prime minister's troubles. He has since been embroiled in the Clearstream scandal, in which he is suspected of using French intelligence services to investigate Mr Sarkozy.
Earlier this week Mr de Villepin's office announced that he was suing three journalists and the publishers of their books for defamation. It is the first time a French leader has done such a thing. "In France, it's becoming more and more difficult to tell the truth," said Denis Robert, author of Clearstream; The Investigation. When the opposition staged a no-confidence vote in mid-May, 207 out of 364 UMP deputies showed their rejection of Mr de Villepin by leaving the assembly before he spoke.
The presidential pardon granted to the former Olympic champion and right-wing politician Guy Drut on May 30th further discredited the de Villepin-Chirac team. Mr Drut had been convicted of involvement in corrupt party financing.
Now Mr de Villepin is faulted for his handling of yet another crisis, this time at EADS, the European defence consortium that is the parent company of Airbus.
Shares in EADS plummeted 26 per cent last week with the news that the A380 superjumbo would again be delayed. It then emerged that Noel Forgeard, the French co-chief executive of EADS, sold his stock options in March for a €2.5 million profit - before news of the delay was released. A shareholder is suing Mr Forgeard for insider trading.
French newspapers are filled with headlines such as "Villepin can no longer govern". Having lost the support of the majority, the prime minister remains in office at the whim of Mr Chirac.
There is widespread speculation about his possible replacement by the popular minister for employment and social cohesion, Jean-Louis Borloo. Mr Chirac hates taking rushed decisions, and would not want to use his next public appearance, in his final Bastille Day interview, to announce the demise of the de Villepin government. Mr de Villepin is more likely to be sacrificed in early September.