Article: Juppe and Jospin redraw the political battle-lines Jospin's back as Juppe is relaunched in Disneyland

Exhibiting a bizarre mixture of defiance and contrition following his recent political difficulties, the French prime minister Alain Juppe was yesterday elected leader of the Gaullist RPR party in succession to Jacques Chirac.

Mr Juppe, the only candidate, received 93 per cent of the more than 70,000 votes cast during a day of stage-managed festivities in the Disneyland conference centre outside Paris.

In a victory speech designed to stress party unity, rally the faithful and reassert the authority of his government and its loyalty to Mr Chirac's campaign promises, Mr Juppe made one brief allusion to his brush with the law over his cut-price Paris flat.

He had, he said, endured a test "which ...

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