French devolution

Can too much democracy be bad for you? The Partie socialiste PS, the Socialist Party of France is the victim of that French preoccupation 8212; debate 8212; and what precedes and follows debate: division. The French socialists concluded a disputed ballot to elect the first secretary of the PS, and Martine Aubry has won by a meagre 42 votes, with more than 40 per cent of party members too disgusted to vote. Her rival, Seacute;golegrave;ne Royale, defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential polls last year, has not only challenged the results but accused the Aubry camp of electoral fraud.

The circus has alarmed a French media used to the presence of the dramatic in the most mundane, with centre-right and centre-left publications screaming 8220;rift8221; and 8220;suicide8221;. So, as Sarkozy8217;s party 8220;salutes8221; the 8220;Socialists8217; talent for self-destruction8221;, the PS finds itself turned into a synecdoche 8212; as part for whole 8212; for France, a nation that found itself painfully divided at almost every crisis known to its history. And also a synecdoche 8212; as whole for part 8212; for the Royale household. Franccedil;ois Hollande, the outgoing first secretary, Royale8217;s partner till they split after her presidential defeat, and the father of her four children, campaigned to keep her out. He is now the arbiter of the disputed result.

With Aubry, the PS old guard 8212; the 8220;elephants8221; 8212; is supposed to 8220;anchor8221; the party on the left. Aubry, the architect of the Sarkozy-embattled 35-hour work week, and Royale, the face of the centre-leaning PS, have fought as much a personal hate campaign as a political one right down to their clothes. The PS, bereft of unity and agenda, is also ideologically lost. And there8217;s news of a young PS Trotskyist, a 8220;revolutionary8221;, Olivier Besancenot, actually leading everybody else in popularity. Now that8217;s real pluralism, in the land that gave the modern world liberty and the guillotine.