RPR's co-founders, Charles Pasqua, peeled off before the summer's European elections, soon to create a rival Gaullist party.

ECONOMIST: The French Gaullists’ new lady | The

Mr Chirac's Gaullist RPR party has run the French capital since 1977.

BBC: News | Europe | Paris corruption probe reaches Juppe

RPR, which has discussed the idea of a common conservative candidate with the Liberal Democrats and the Union for French Democracy, will promote a second Tiberi term.

ECONOMIST: France

RPR, each bit winning barely 13% of the votes cast.

ECONOMIST: The French Gaullists�� new lady

Observers say Mr Jospin has made no attempt to make political capital out of the RPR's party funding embarrassments, because investigators believe his Socialist Party also acquired funds illicitly.

BBC: Chirac refuses court summons

RPR's Paris branch for allegedly inflating the voters' roll.

ECONOMIST: France

RPR's founder, President Jacques Chirac, clearly wanted Mrs Alliot-Marie's opponent, a colourless senator called Jean-Paul Delevoye, to win the job, so that he would pose no threat if, as expected, the president bids for a second term in 2002.

ECONOMIST: The French Gaullists’ new lady | The