French Socialists. To the barricades

A deeper shade of red: fulminating Fabius

The French Socialist Party lurches left

A FEW months ago, France's Socialist grandees talked of a split in the 100-year-old party. The left was in disarray after a breakaway camp, led by Laurent Fabius, campaigned against the European constitution. Mr Fabius was unceremoniously dumped from the leadership. Yet this week, after a congress in Le Mans, the party rallied behind its leader, Francois Hollande. It produced a common policy platform, and welcomed Mr Fabius back on board. "The time for confrontation between Socialists", declared a beaming Mr Hollande, "is over."

This is the first time the party has produced a common programme since 1990, back in the days of Francois Mitterrand. This time, Mr Hollande was under huge pressure to match that achievement. The Socialists know their party's image has been tarnished by internal rivalries. During the recent riots, navel-gazing looked particularly inappropriate. A poll in Le Monde ahead of the Le Mans meeting suggested that 60% of French people gave the party no chance of winning the 2007 presidential election.

Yet unity has a price. For one thing, the party's modernising wing, led by Mr Hollande and such figures as Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Jack Lang and Segolene Royal, has had to swallow policies inspired by the left. The programme would renationalise Electricite de France, the power utility, partly floated this week; raise the minimum wage; abolish flexible two-year job contracts; and boost overtime pay for working more than 35 hours. On the EU, the party has fudged matters, calling for a federal Europe that is both "more political and more social".

Moreover, the battle for control of the party has been postponed, not resolved. Mr Hollande's stature may have grown after a successful congress, but many do not consider him a credible presidential candidate. He lacks charisma, has no ministerial experience, and, unlike his hugely popular partner, Ms Royal, he gets poor poll ratings. The party is cursed by a wealth of presidential hopefuls. But the battle to watch, ahead of a vote next November to pick a candidate, concerns the Hollande-Royal couple and two heavyweights: Mr Fabius and Mr Strauss-Kahn.

For Mr Strauss-Kahn, it is awkward to be yoked to a policy platform so far to his left. As finance minister in the late 1990s, he privatised swathes of French companies. Lefty critics insult him with the Blairite label social liberal. He accepted the party's lurch to the left because, says one friend, "he had no choice". The party had decided to set policy before picking a candidate, and the need for unity prevailed.

For his part, Mr Fabius emerges stronger from Le Mans than might appear. In a first round of voting, his proposals won only 21% of the vote, next to 54% for Mr Hollande's. Yet Mr Hollande's score is shared with Mr Strauss-Kahn and a handful of others. Moreover, by backing the single platform, Mr Fabius secured both his return to the party's leadership - he is expected to install a lieutenant in the executive rather than take a seat himself - and a more left-wing flavour for the party. It would not be a total surprise if he were to win the nomination next year.

As the left elsewhere in Europe modernises, the radical shift of France's Socialists looks odd. But it matches the country's anti-capitalist mood. Take the strike this week by SNCF railway workers, which left many commuters stranded on cold platforms. The complaint, said the unions, was "rampant privatisation". This is baffling: the government reaffirmed this week that it plans no such thing. The railwaymen were staging what might be called a pre-emptive strike - a protest at the reorganisation of the SNCF, which faces competition for freight early next year, in case it leads to a sell-off. Many workers, already protected by generous pension provision, with retirement possible at 50 for train drivers, agreed to go back to work on the promise of yet another bonus and pay rise.