In his father's footsteps

It's hard not to jump to the conclusion that Jean, the 21-year-old second son of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is being groomed for success and higher political office.

He was a key player in the mess that quickly became a political soap opera during the local elections to find a mayor for the swish Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine in March.

Now he has been rewarded, of sorts, with the job of bringing peace and calm to his father's ruling centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party in the town.

And that's exactly what's needed since the party attempted to rip itself apart in what has traditionally been one of its strongholds. Neully-sur-Seine has more than 4,000 registered party members - not bad going in a town with a population of just about 60,000. And it was for a long time the personal fiefdom of the current president, where he was mayor from 1983-2002.

The troubles started when Sarkozy Snr parachuted in his (now former) presidential spokesman, David Martinon, as the party's candidate for the mayoral vacancy that was up for grabs in March. But when it became clear that he would probably lose out to another independent centre-right contender, Jean-Christophe Fromantin, the local party led by Sarkozy Jnr and his father's long time number two in Neuilly, Arnaud Teullé, joined forces to effectively "sack" Martinon.

The UMP national executive then decided to throw its weight behind Fromantin, much to the disgust of Teullé who decided to run for office himself.

It was handbags at dawn stuff as centre-right met centre right in the second round run-off, with Sarkozy Snr remaining quiet as his mother Andrée and one of his closest political confidants, immigration minister Brice Hortefeux, both breaking party ranks to support the by now "dissident" Teullé. In the end, Fromantin beat Teullé, with 61,67% of the vote against 38,33%.

Enter stage left Sarkozy Jnr, who after his own election to the regional council of Haut-de-Seine (in which Neuilly is a canton) has now been asked to take on the responsibility of co-ordinating the UMP’s activities in Neuilly. That's a job that has been filled for the past 10 years by Teullé.

Commenting on his rapid promotion, Sarkozy Jnr pretty much stated the obvious that it wasn't a scoop that the election campaign had left its mark on the party, and he had been asked to "restore peace and serenity." Even Teullé was as gracious as could be in yet again being pushed to one side, claiming that he no longer wished to run the local UMP office because he had done so for the past 10 years.

"Jean Sarkozy is a friend," he said. "I see him often and wish him all the best in his new task." Of course Teullé's "dismissal" had nothing to do with the fact that at a national level the UMP had decided to back another candidate in the mayor's race.

Similarly local UMP party officials have been quick to deny that the next step for Sarkozy Jnr would be the mayor's office.

"We don't want to declare war on the candidate (Fromantin) we supported, maintained the party's local secretary, Jacques Gautier. "Jean represents the young generation and has a maturity that's hard to imagine in someone of his age."

So perhaps Sarkozy Jnr is a little more than the sticking plaster the party would like us to believe. At least he'll now have the time before the next elections to build up his power base and prove that he's worthy of the higher political office for which he is so obviously not being groomed.