A Royal snub for Martine Aubry

Based on recent evidence, not that much has changed within the French Socialist party since Martine Aubry took over its leadership last year.

She's still facing opposition within the party - and most notably from the woman she narrowly beat in last year's contest to become leader, Ségolène Royal.

Last week Aubry announced that a number of the so-called "elephants" - or its old guard - had accepted her invitation to join her in helping rebuild the party.

"In the past few months we've put in place the walls and foundations (for renovation)," Aubry said as she heralded the return of the former prime minister, Laurent Fabius, and Bertrand Delanoë, the current mayor of Paris, into the fold of the party's national bureau.

"What has been missing is the cement," she added.

"The cement is unity."

Top marks perhaps for trying, but once again Aubry has run into an obstacle - and it's none other than Ségoléne Royal, who has turned down the offer.

Instead Royal suggested that her proposed place be filled by Kamel Chibli, a 32-year-old party activist and deputy mayor for the town of Laval in the northwestern French département of Mayenne.

So, young and of Moroccan origin, exactly what the party needs as far as Royal is concerned and a person she considers as being part "of a new generation that must be brought in to take over responsibility within the party," as Royal's spokesman, Guillaume Garot explained.

"Faithful to her idea of a France being a melting pot, she (Royal) wants to give responsibility to people from all ethnic backgrounds," he added.

Of course Royal has a point.

The party's reliance on the elephants has been a source of criticism for many over recent years, and Aubry's move could simply be interpreted as an attempt to renovate the party by turning to those whose names are all-to-familiar to the electorate at large.

Among those names of course are some that reluctantly threw their weight behind Royal when she was the party's unsuccessful candidate in the 2007 presidential elections.

And some of them undoubtedly have not so ill-disguised aspirations to be the party's candidate for that same position in 2012.

But while Royal's reaction is backed up to a great extent by another one of her supporters in the shape of Manuel Valls, who referred more openly to the "return of the elephants", her suggestion was turned down flat in a manner which surely smacks equally of a counter snub.

"Renovation has already occurred with the national secretariat and the national bureau of the party," said François Lamy, a political advisor to Aubry.

"Now we're saying that it's important to have experience and unity within the party," he added.

"That's why Bertrand Delanoë and Laurent Fabius have been offered posts and that's what they understood."