Affairs of politics, heart mark French election

PARIS — Back- room deals, black lists and bitter duels. Political and personal intrigue has wormed its way into Sunday’s final round of French legislative elections.

President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party is battling to ensure a solid majority and fulfill his vows to boost growth in Europe and redefine the French presidency as one beholden to the people.

Barring surprises, the Socialists and their allies should win enough seats to control the crucial 577- seat lower house of parliament, after a strong showing in the first round of the ballot a week ago. But to get an absolute majority guaranteeing a free hand to govern, which requires at least 289 seats, the party is trying to fend off conservatives who dominated parliament under former President Nicolas Sarkozy.

They’re also trying to shame those in the mainstream right who are cutting vote- getting deals with the extreme right, anti- immigrant National Front, which is wrangling for its first real presence in parliament in more than a quarter century.

“The right no longer knows where it lives. It no longer knows what it is,” said Economy Minister Pierre Moscovici this week on France 2 TV. “It’s lost its markers, its identity, its values.”

One unexpected hitch for the Socialists flew straight out of Hollande’s most inner circle. In a tweet this week, his live- in companion supported a dissident candidate in western France, a not- so- subtle attack on the Socialist Party’s official candidate, Segolene Royal, the president’s ex- partner and mother of his four children.

Royal is portrayed in the French press as the nemesis of a jealous Valerie Trierweiler, whose tweet on Tuesday upended the image Hollande has been trying to project: that of a “normal” leader intent on keeping the public and private spheres separate.

That stance is meant to set Hollande apart from the brash Sarkozy, who grabbed headlines with his complicated private life while building up a presidency that critics said was too centered on his own personality and his rich friends’ interests. Hollande defeated him in the May 6 presidential vote, amid voter frustrations with Sarkozy’s handling of the economy and the presidency.

The tweet also dealt a blow to Royal, whose chances of winning her parliamentary race were already shaky. Polls suggest that Royal, a former presidential candidate, will lose to dissident Socialist Olivier Falorni by a wide margin — a double defeat for Royal since her ultimate goal was to become speaker of the National Assembly.