France's UMP party must sort out Sarkozy's successor, fast

The battle between two men to succeed the former president has torn the conservative party apart
Francois Fillon, UMP leadership candidate
France's former prime minister François Fillon (pictured) and Jean-François Copé both claimed victory in the UMP party's leadership elections. Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP

It was supposed to be a shining example of democracy: on Sunday the 300,000 party members of Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party were asked to elect a new leader, in the party's first step to rebuilding itself after presidential election defeat earlier this year.

But Rome was not built in a day. Instead, despite the high turnout, the democratic exercise quickly turned to farce. Amid accusations of voting irregularities, trickery and bitter in-fighting, a little before midnight both candidates François Fillon and Jean-François Copé claimed victory, causing havoc in the party. This has already massively damaged the party because in the eyes of the French public, the UMP is messy, disorganised and riddled with personal ambitions. France watched aghast as key figures on the French right tore each other apart live on TV. It allowed the right to be compared to the once bitterly divided Socialists. Voters will not be happy at this spectacle and rightwing rivals such as Marine Le Pen and Jean-Louis Borloo (leader of the centrist UDI party) will soon start preying on the wounded beast.

This morning, there is still no result. Judging by the level of hatred witnessed between the two sides, rest assure that whoever gets elected leader of the party will be weakened from the get-go. As predicted, Sarkozy's defeat by François Hollande last May has unleashed a battle at the conservative heart of French politics. But it wasn't expected to be this messy.

As we wait for the result, it's worth looking at the enormous challenge facing the party – which will only get harder after this fiasco. The UMP has no experience of being in opposition since its launch in 2002. Once the domineering political force in France, it has been "reduced to the size of an overcooked pâté" as former finance minister Hervé Gaymard mildly put it. Losing one election after another for the past five years, the UMP has narrowed its electoral perimeter to issues like immigration, national identity or the place of Islam in France, reaching out only to fringe voters. The UMP faces the threat of extinction or even worse: becoming the party of "angry old white men" cutting itself off ever more from France's changing society.

In a very strategic campaign, Copé, the party's last secretary general, chose to address the core of the party, presenting himself as the number one opponent, pledging he would even take to the streets to protest against the government's policies. In a more traditional manner, the former prime minister Fillon played his statesmanship card, addressing the French people before the UMP's core electorate, appearing as more moderate than Copé.

Some saw this election as the first step towards the UMP reclaiming power in 2017. But with this election turning sour it looks unlikely, and just serves to highlight the immense task of overhauling the party. As the former agriculture minister Bruno Le Maire put it, the UMP needs to "reinvent its doctrine" and come up with new ideas. The party also needs to rejuvenate itself with new people from much more diverse backgrounds. It will have to focus on winning back local power in the 2014 local elections before even thinking about the 2017 presidential election. Not least because the 2017 nominee will have to go through an open primary like the one Hollande had to endure to become the Socialist candidate.

But first, after this debacle, the party must decide who its leader is, and then unite behind him as quickly as possible.