Royal under fire after court payout

FORMER socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal has been ordered by a court to pay several months unpaid wages to two ex-aides.

Royal, who is campaigning to take over leadership of the Socialist Party from former partner François Hollande in November, has been taunted for the ruling by opposition MPs.

An appeals court in Rennes last week ruled against her in a case brought by two women who worked as her parliamentary assistants in the late 1990s.

The case centred around two parliamentary aides who were laid-off with the dissolution of the National Assembly in 1997 – a standard practice among politicians.

The two women claimed that they continued working for Royal during the election campaign and when she first began working under the Jospin administration and took her to court for payment. After several hearings and appeals judges eventually ruled against Royal.

UMP secretary general Patrick Devedjian said: "A candidate for the presidential election and someone who gives day-long morality lessons on labour rights cannot behave in a way that does not respect labour laws."

Royal has accused former prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin of libel after he said "wrongful dismissal should not be practised by someone who aspires to high office."

Raffarin called on Royal to resign as chairman of the Poitou-Charentes regional council, a post that he lost to Royal in 2004 elections.

Royal responded in a statement that she had not been convicted for wrongful dismissal and suggested that Raffarin had a hand in bringing the case to court. "We now see who was behind this judicial trap," she said.

Photo: Guillaumepaumier