Juppé Calls for UMP Primaries

Alain Juppé, who will not compete in the legislative elections, has called for the UMP to hold a primary to choose its next presidential candidate. "We mocked the Socialists a bit," he admits, "but we see that it was a good operation for them." It also will not have escaped Juppé's notice that the primary allowed a challenger to defeat the party leader to win the nomination. The primary system breaks the party leader's lock on the internal apparatus, and since one of Juppé's chief rivals now holds that lock, he has all the more reason to look to the primary.