Meltdown of the Right in France
PARIS Former prime minister Francois Fillon, outraged at losing a chaotic internal leadership vote marred by cheating, threatened Tuesday to split off from France's main conservative party and take his followers into a separate parliamentary group.
Fillon said the breakaway faction could return to the mother party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), if a new leadership election were held within three months to eliminate the doubt as to who would assume former president Nicolas Sarkozy's mantle as head of the right-wing opposition in France.
Fillon's victorious rival, Jean-Francois Cope, had already rejected proposals for a new vote. But prodded by Sarkozy, Cope and Fillon compromised late Tuesday on an agreement to hold a referendum among the UMP faithful to see if they want to hold a second vote, probably early next year.
The fragile compromise calmed for the moment what had become an embarrassing public catfight over who was the rightful UMP president. But it left the two men arrayed in angry confrontation, with each claiming to be in charge and blaming the other for weakening the party when it should be attacking President Francois Hollande's ruling Socialists. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/international/181049791.html