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Jean Sarkozy and two local allies announced they were setting up a rival campaign, possibly running for mayor. -- AFP
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PARIS - CHAOS deepened in President Nicolas Sarkozy's political stronghold on Tuesday as his ruling party said it had given up fielding a candidate for mayor - and quashed suggestions the president's son could run.
Mr Sarkozy's chosen candidate for the wealthy Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, threw in the towel after he was publicly dropped by the president's 21-year-old son Jean, thought to have been acting on his father's orders.
Despite the head of state's backing, a secret poll had shown the 36-year-old Elysee spokesman David Martinon losing the town, where Mr Sarkozy served as mayor for 19 years, in municipal elections next month.
The president's son, Jean Sarkozy, and two local allies from Sarkozy's UMP party announced they were setting up a rival campaign, fuelling speculation the son could run for mayor.
But the right-wing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) said on Tuesday it was throwing its weight behind a dissident pro-Sarkozy candidate, Jean Fromentin, and had given up fielding a candidate of its own.
'We wish him good luck,' UMP secretary-general Patrick Devedjian told reporters, saying he hoped the 'past turbulence would soon be forgotten'.
Mr Devedjian dismissed suggestions the young Sarkozy could run for mayor.
'Jean Sarkozy has a lot of talent, he is an intelligent, sensitive boy who loves politics and has a talent for it,' the party leader said.
But he highlighted the son's youth and added 'his time has not yet come.' 'In a republic jobs are earned through merit, through work, not by inheritance,' he added.
The UMP's chosen candidate Fromentin had warned he would not work with Jean Sarkozy or his local allies, Jean Teulle and Marie-Cecile Menard, saying he was 'shocked' by their decision to dump Mr Martinon.
As the opposition Socialists derided events in Neuilly as a 'farce', Mr Teulle complicated the situation further on Tuesday by announcing he would still run, even without the party's support.
France's richest town, Neuilly voted 86 per cent in favour of Mr Sarkozy in last year's presidential race, earning it the nickname 'Sarkoland'.
The fiasco in the town is an unwelcome embarrassment for Mr Sarkozy, battling a severe slump in the polls and unwelcome revelations about his private life as the countdown begins to the March municipal vote.
Many right-wing deputies fear the impression of unruliness in their camp will cost them their second jobs as mayors or local councillors in the election.
A new IPSOS-Le Point survey showed the approval rate for the president, who was Tuesday on the second day of a trip to French Guiana, hitting the lowest point since his election at 39 per cent. -- AFP
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