The fate of France's main opposition party is hanging on the outcome of a meeting on Sunday between a mediator and the heads of two camps fighting for leadership of the conservative Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, reports The Wall Street Journal.
After a week of internal dispute played out in public, the two contenders, Jean-François Copé and François Fillon, said Friday they had agreed to a three-way meeting with former Prime Minister Alain Juppé to discuss how the veteran politician could help decide who won a vote last week to become UMP president.
The party has been trying to pick a new leader and reinvigorate itself after Nicolas Sarkozy distanced himself from politics following his defeat in the May presidential election.
The UMP initially declared Mr. Copé the victor of the party vote by a narrow margin, and Mr. Fillon conceded defeat. On Wednesday, however, Mr. Fillon contested the results, saying he would have won if the party hadn't failed to count ballots from three overseas French territories.
Mr. Juppé said Friday that he didn't want his role to last longer than two weeks. "I won't let myself dragged into interminable negotiations," he said in a televised news conference.
The success of Mr. Juppé's peace-brokering mission is far from guaranteed.
Among the many thorny issues is the role of the UMP's election appeals board. The three men will have to agree on how Mr. Juppé will coordinate his work with the board, which is supposed to handle complaints about vote irregularities.
Mr. Fillon, who said the appeals board is "under Mr. Copé's sway," said he wanted Mr. Juppé to control the entire recount process.
Mr. Copé, who rejected Mr. Fillon's accusation, said the board should fulfill its mission in accordance with the UMP's bylaws, with Mr. Juppé acting only as a neutral observer.
Read more of this report from The Wall Street Journal.