PARIS: Defeated and in disarray, the French left is set for a period of bitter internal conflict as leading figures blame each other, as well as Segolene Royal, for the country’s decisive rejection of her presidential campaign.

Even the imminence of a general election, expected to give Nicolas Sarkozy more encouragement in his mission to impose sweeping change, has failed to prevent an early start to recrimination.

The so-called “elephants” — Socialist party grandees — who resented Ms Royal’s sprint to the presidential candidacy, have already raised questions about the style and content of her campaign. In spite of the need for a show of unity before next month’s parliamentary election, an appetite for revenge is evident as the left nurses the wounds of a third successive presidential election defeat.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister who fought Ms Royal for the candidacy last November, attacked her first-round strategy and put himself forward as someone capable of reshaping the party to attract more support from the centre. Of Ms Royal’s likely role in the coming campaign, he said on Europe1 radio: “Segolene Royal obviously has her place. The future will tell us what that place is.”

His remarks drew an instant rebuke from the party’s pro-Royal parliamentary leader, Jean-Marc Ayrault, who accused him of being vengeful and aggressive, adding: “I strongly advise him not to carry on in that tone, one of score-settling.”

But Socialists are not even agreed on what went wrong. The differences were clear from the reaction of the former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, also beaten to the party nomination and certain to join Mr Strauss-Kahn in any leadership contest.

While accepting the need for rebuilding, he insisted that this should involve no departure from traditional principles. “We need to completely embrace leftwing values,” he said.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service