Supporters of Segolene Royal accused opponents within France's Socialist party of fixing a bitterly contested leadership vote and demanded a re-run, plunging the leftist opposition into crisis today.
Socialist officials said Martine Aubry, architect of the controversial 35-hour work week, defeated her arch rival Royal by just 0.04 percentage points, or 42 votes, in yesterday's ballot of the party's 233,000 members.
The result was a gift for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who defeated Ms Royal in last year's presidential election and has taken advantage of the enfeebled opposition to speed ahead with his domestic reform programme.
Ms Royal's camp refused to accept the leadership result and urged Socialist members to rise up against the party hierarchy, which had openly backed Aubry's candidacy.
"There was fraud, there was cheating, there is deep doubt about last night's result," parliamentarian Manuel Valls said.
"I call for the membership to rebel...our supporters cannot put up with this any more. The only way out of it is to hold a second vote," he told TF1 television.
Senior leftist figures urged restraint, fearing the ballot could tear apart the Socialist party, which was refounded by former President Francois Mitterrand in 1971 but has been riven by deep divisions for years.
Ms Aubry, the daughter of former European Commission President Jacques Delors, made no immediate comment on the accusations and left it to her inner circle to defend the result.
"No one can deny the situation is complicated, but no one can deny that Martine Aubry is the new first secretary of the Socialist party," said her close adviser, Francois Lamy.
Reuters