FRANCE-POLITICS-PARTIES-UMP-CONGRESS

Jerome Lavrilleux (L), cabinet director of newly-elected president of the right-wing UMP opposition party, Jean-Francois Cope at the UMP's elections control committee (COCOE) hold electoral files of the French southern town of Nice beside French lawyer and pro-Cope supporter, Francis Szpiner (R) at the UMP party's headquarters in Paris on November 25, 2012, after a COCOE meeting. Szpiner declared a "desertion" the fact that French former Prime minister Francois Fillon's campaign director, Eric Ciotti slammed the door from the UMP's appeal elections control board, after considering it illegitimate and biased. Party heavyweight Juppe, a former premier and foreign minister, will hold a mediation meeting later in the day with the right-winger, who was declared the winner of November 22 knife-edge vote to pick a party leader, Jean-Francois Cope, and his centrist rival Francois Fillon. The talks are to establish who actually won the leadership and whether mutual allegations of ballot rigging have any foundation. AFP PHOTO KENZO TRIBOUILLARD (Photo by KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP) (Photo by KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images)