France:There can be only one president on the right: Nicolas Sarkozy. France's president-elect stepped down as president of the right-wing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) yesterday, two days before taking over from President Jacques Chirac.
He will not be replaced as party leader.
"At the moment, when I've just been elected president of the republic, and on the eve of assuming my functions, I can no longer remain at the head of the party," Mr Sarkozy told a rapturous audience of more than 2,000 UMP officials.
To ensure that no one repeats Mr Sarkozy's feat of using the party to undermine the president of France, the UMP's statutes will be changed in the autumn. It will be run by a three-man committee until a party congress designates Brice Hortefeux, a trusted factotum, as secretary general.
Mr Sarkozy said he felt "sadness mixed with joy" at leaving the party. "The necessity for the president of the republic to embody the authority of the state, to speak for all French people . . . the necessity that none of them doubt his impartiality put me in the moral obligation to cease being president of the UMP," he said. "Now I owe myself to France."
Mr Sarkozy has ruffled feathers on left and right by inviting men long associated with the Socialist Party - former foreign minister Hubert Védrine and former health minister and founder of Médecins Sans Frontières Bernard Kouchner - to join the government he will form within a few days.
His speech was a dual plea for unity on the right and "tolerance and opening" towards defectors from other parties.
Several speakers protested - too much? - that the UMP was "not a party of godillots [blind followers]".
François Fillon, who will become France's new prime minister on Thursday, told the party faithful: "This victory, we owe it to Nicolas Sarkozy, to his talent, his originality, his powers of persuasion. We especially owe it to his political analysis . . . We are going to open up and reinvigorate French democracy . . . Today, Nicolas is the man of the entire nation."
In an attempt to defuse opposition to promised economic reforms, including incentives for working overtime, guaranteed minimum service in the event of transport strikes and the end of special retirement provisions for transport workers, Mr Sarkozy will conclude a second day of consultations with trade union leaders today.
But fears about Mr Sarkozy's authoritarian streak continue. He has decided to retain the Lanterne residence on the grounds of Versailles, the traditional weekend refuge of the prime minister, for his own use. It has tennis courts and a swimming pool, and is within easy driving distance of Paris. As a consolation prize, Mr Fillon will be granted use of a more distant presidential chateau, Souzy-la-Briche.
The spiking of an article that was to have been published by the Journal du Dimanche (JDD) on Sunday has been described by Rue89.com, the website that revealed the incident, as "the first known case of censorship of the Sarkozy era".
Rue89.com was founded by several of the best correspondents from the Libération newspaper.
Election ledgers are public information in France, and the JDD learned that Cecilia Sarkozy, the wife of the president-elect, did not vote on May 6th. It was to have printed a photograph of her name in the ledger, with no corresponding signature to indicate she had voted. According to Rue89.com, the article also mentioned heated arguments between Mr and Ms Sarkozy on election night. Arnaud Lagardère, the billionaire owner of the JDD who calls Mr Sarkozy "my brother", allegedly ordered his newspaper not to publish the story.
The UMP is nonetheless likely to win a majority in next month's legislative elections. "Of course Sarkozy will have a majority - there are 365 incumbent UMP deputies, one for every day of the year," said François Bayrou, the former centrist candidate.
Bruno Le Roux, who is in charge of elections at the Socialist Party, also said he was certain the French would give a majority to Mr Sarkozy. His only hope was that the Socialist Party would gain more than the 150 (of 577) seats they won in 2002.
But the Socialists seem bent on collective suicide. Their failed candidate Ségolène Royal set the tone at a meeting of the Socialist Party national council at the weekend, complaining of constant "criticism and betrayal" by her fellow socialists. Ms Royal is now in a triangular power struggle against her partner, the current party leader François Hollande, and the former finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Both men rejected Ms Royal's suggestion that the party should designate its candidate for the 2012 presidential election by next year.
Mr Hollande yesterday said he would form a large opposition party taking in left and centre, but only after next month's election. Mr Strauss-Kahn said Mr Hollande held primary responsibility for the botched presidential campaign, because he failed to renew the party after the Socialists lost in 2002.