Splintered Field in Race for French President

PARIS -- France's main left and right-wing parties have been cast into disarray by the results of the European elections as rivals jockey for next year's presidential contest. Within days of Sunday's election, in which anti-establishment mavericks and splinter parties grabbed roughly half of the vote, bitter feuding has erupted in both camps. As the new daily Infomatin put it, "the right has too many presidential contenders and the left too few."On the right, friends and foes of Gaullist Prime Minister Edouard Balladur have begun back-room maneuvers to encourage his candidacy or trip him up. A group of 27 pro-Balladur deputies from the Republican Party announced Tuesday they were breaking away from the Union for French Democracy in a move intended to undermine the umbrella movement's leader, ex-president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who has made clear he wants to stand again. Party leader and Industry Minister Gerard Longuet persuaded the secessionists to hold off for the moment, but the incident revealed the strength of support for Balladur within the Union for French Democracy. Balladur's supporters have leaked opinion polls showing he would crush both Gaullist party leader Jacques Chirac and Giscard d'Estaing if they all ran on the first ballot of the two-round presidential election. Drawing a lesson from voter dissatisfaction with Europe reflected in the strong scores of right-wing anti-Maastricht crusaders Philippe de Villiers and Jean-Marie le Pen, Balladur announced Wednesday he would chair a monthly ministerial meeting on EU affairs. He has also invited the leaders of all French groups elected to the European Parliament to meet him next Monday to encourage them to defend France's interests. On the left, the knives are out for Socialist Party leader Michel Rocard, 63, whose comrades have wasted no time in telling him that his abysmal 14.5 percent score Sunday is no basis for a presidential bid. The party's national council was meeting Wednesday to discuss the election debacle and look for ways to reunite the fragmented French left. While there was no sign of an immediate attempt to oust Rocard, many party leaders said he could no longer be considered the party's "natural candidate" for the presidency. Many socialists hope to persuade Jacques Delors, 68, president of the European Commission, to run for the Elys?e Palace after his Brussels mandate expires at the end of the year. But Delors has shown no sign of entering the race and has reaffirmed that he still regards Rocard as the left's candidate. Whoever runs on the left may need at least the tacit support of soccer boss turned politician Bernard Tapie, who took a sensational 12 percent of the vote Sunday.