France’s Socialists and sympathisers are choosing their nominee for next year’s presidential election – an expected showdown with embattled conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy.

FRENCH Socialist leaders Francois Hollande and Martine Aubry — bitter rivals despite coming from the same wing of their party — face a tight battle for the right to run against Nicolas Sarkozy.

DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN, his presidential hopes shattered by a sex assault scandal that rocked his homeland, returned to France to a frosty public reception and unease among his political allies.

FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy’s has denied new claims he took undeclared campaign cash from the heiress to the L’Oreal cosmetics fortune five years ago, just as the race for next year’s presidential elections is heating up.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's has denied new claims that he took undeclared campaign cash from the heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics fortune five years ago, just as the race for next year's presidential elections is heating up.

A FRENCH novelist will file a criminal complaint today accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape, her lawyer said, throwing fresh uncertainty into a fierce national debate about whether the former International Monetary Fund chief can return to his country’s presidential race.

FORMER IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest yesterday after prosecutors said the hotel maid who accused him of attempted rape lied to a grand jury and made other false statements.

Prosecutors have serious questions about the credibility of a hotel housekeeper who has accused former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn of raping her, and they are taking the extraordinary step of seeking a substantial reduction in his pricey bail, a person familiar with the case said.

French voters have shrugged at politicians’ infidelities for decades but now some wonder if their tolerance has allowed criminal acts by one of the country’s best-known public figures to go unpunished.

Allegations of sexual assault in a New York hotel have torn France’s presidential race asunder and savaged the reputation of the suave and self-assured Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been charged with attempting to rape a New York hotel maid, in a scandal that upends his plans to run for president of France and throws leadership of the global lender into turmoil at the height of the European debt crisis.

FRENCH president Nicolas Sarkozy was taking stock after local election results gave the opposition Socialists a launch pad for the 2012 presidential election and fresh hope for the far right.

Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party took a drubbing in local elections, seen as a test ahead of next year’s presidential vote, and the far-right National Front left its first footprint in France’s smallest administrative districts.

A SHOCK poll showed far-right champion Marine Le Pen leading the race for the French presidency yesterday, as incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy faced claims he is fuelling anti-Muslim sentiment.

Nicolas Sarkozy appointed a new government in a marathon weekend reshuffle with faithful allies taking top posts clearly aimed at pleasing his conservative ranks before France’s 2012 presidential election.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy today sealed his victory in a long-running battle with unions as new retirement rules became law.

PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy dispatched riot police yesterday to reopen fuel depots blocked by strikes against pension reform, as the pipeline to Paris airports was cut and all of France’s oil refineries shut down.

AFTER weeks of turmoil over a political donations scandal, French President Nicolas Sarkozy will make a rare summer address to the nation today, before a key pension reform is presented to the cabinet tomorrow.

NICOLAS Sarkozy’s father and his wife aren’t thrilled about the prospect of the French president running for a second term in 2012.

FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy prepared yesterday to shake up his government after a humiliating defeat by the left in regional elections pressured him to recast his reform programme.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is meeting his prime minister first thing today to work out a response to their conservative party’s crushing defeat in regional elections, a vote that informally kicked off the 2012 presidential race.

FRANCE’S opposition Socialists and their allies handily defeated President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservatives in regional elections yesterday according to partial official results after a vote that helps set the stage for the 2012 presidential race.

PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy’s party yesterday fought to recover from a first-round beating in French regional elections that also saw the far-right National Front surge back.

President Nicolas Sarkozy suffered a national beating by voters who took their frustrations over the economic crisis to the ballot box and clearly favoured his leftist challengers in regional elections.

FRANCE voted yesterday in regional polls forecast to punish Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling party, the last ballot-box test of his popularity ahead of the 2012 presidential election.

The French Socialist Party said today that the architect of France’s 35-hour work week has won the party’s leadership in an extremely tight race – an outcome quickly challenged by supporters of her rival.

A closely fought race between two women to become the new leader of France’s Socialist Party has ended in a dead heat, a senior party official said early today.

France’s long holidays and 35-hour working week could become a thing of the past today when MPs hold a final vote on whether to dismantle the controversial shortened week and allow employees to work more.

The French government and opposition parties were squaring off today on plans to reform the short working week – a pillar of the previous Socialist administration now denounced by critics as economically crippling.