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The World’s Gerry Hadden reports that the French Socialist party is in such disarray that some of its leaders are asking out loud whether its time to dissolve the party altogether.

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. In France, Socialist Party leaders are preparing to go on their annual summer retreat later this month, but this year’s strategizing may be overshadowed by infighting.  The quarreling is so bad that some high-ranking members are saying it may be time to do away with the leftist party once and for all. The World’s Gerry Hadden reports from Paris.

GERRY HADDEN: Remember the movie, The Sixth Sense?  The main character, played by Bruce Willis, goes around helping ghosts only to discover that he himself is dead.  That’s a bit how one of France’s most famous leftist icons recently described his own socialist party. Commentator for all seasons, Bernard-Henri Levy, told French media that the French left is dead, but unwilling to recognize it.

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GERRY HADDEN: He said, as an alternative to President Nicolas Sarkozy, in terms of retaking power, the Socialist Party has become a non-actor. He went on to say that instead of providing hope, the party provokes anger and exasperation. A major reason is a furious power struggle among its top brass. The party has more than half a dozen factions. Their differences are ideological and personal.

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GERRY HADDEN: That’s Manuel Valls, the socialist mayor of a city of Evry, outside Paris.  He’s been lambasting party’s bosses of late, for their inability to turn this ship around. Valls, a relatively young politician, is calling for the party to drop the word ‘socialist’ from its name, purge the old guard, and start anew.  His comments earned him a telephone text message from Party president, Martine Aubrey.  “If you really think the party’s doomed,” she wrote, “then you should leave it.” Instead, Valls appeared on the cover of a major French magazine to protest against his scolding. In the photo he has black tape over his mouth.   Then he announced that he’ll run for president of the republic in 2012. So much for quelling internal dissent.  To put an end to this destructive feuding, one French leftie proposes changing the way Socialist leaders are chosen.  Olivier Ferrant wants to see an American style primary, a more open process in which candidates campaign publicly for the nomination.  Ferrant says without such reform the party will remain, as he calls it, a headless chicken.

OLIVIER FERRANT: We need an Obama.  We don’ know where she or he hides, so we need test the maximum number of personalities within our party.  When you refuse to have a legal leader that will emerge from a procedure like a primary, you end up waiting for a natural leader, for a messiah that will come out of the blue.

GERRY HADDEN: One of the few points the squabbling Socialists agree on is that the party has reached a low point in its 100 year history. The spiral really took off after a trouncing in the 2007 presidential elections, when French voters overwhelmingly went for center-right politician Nicolas Sarkozy.  Since then the Socialists have failed to bounce back. Veteran party leader Laurent Fabius recently offered this explanation as to why.

LAURENT FABIUS: [TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH] On a local level, people strongly support the Socialist Party.  Because we respond to their needs, provide service.  And we’re efficient and modern.  But when we look at politics on the national level, there’s a lot about us to criticize.  We need to rediscover the same self-confidence on the national stage.

GERRY HADDEN: And update the party’s platform, analysts say.  When the Iron Curtain fell, most socialist parties in Europe moved to the center to survive, reinventing themselves as social democrats.  But the French left entrenched.  Current Socialist leader Martine Aubrey is the architect of France’s 35-hour workweek.  Her faction staunchly defends other worker gains, including comparatively early retirement and laws making it difficult for bosses to fire people. But in a time of crisis slogans like ‘work less, retire early’ have not rallied citizens to the socialists’ side.

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GERRY HADDEN: On the larger stage they haven’t faired any better. During ceremonies to welcome the European Union’s newly elected Parliament last month, the Socialists were not to celebrating.  They won only 16 percent of the vote, as citizens continued to look to the right for answers to the global economic crisis. For The World I’m Gerry Hadden in Paris.

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