The racist National Front's decline as a credible political force was accelerated yesterday despite a court ruling that its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, has the exclusive right to the movement's name and flaming tricolour emblem.
It was a pyrrhic victory for Mr Le Pen in his destructive power struggle with his former deputy, Bruno Mégret, who failed to persuade the court to rule that his breakaway movement was now the legitimate National Front.
Mr Mégret, 50, expelled last year for trying to oust Mr Le Pen, 70, is prolonging the battle by lodging an appeal: a move that effectively paralyses the European election campaigns of both factions by freezing their access to funds ahead of the June 13 poll.
The ruling that the congress called by Mr Mégret in January, which deposed Mr Le Pen, was illegal means that the breakaway movement will have to find a new name.
The leadership struggle has already shattered the party's hope of becoming a meaningful political power, although two years ago it was a serious candidate for shared government and an inspiration to other European fascist parties.
In certain areas Mr Le Pen attracted more than a third of the electorate, forcing some orthodox rightwing leaders to swing behind his racist policies in the hope of stopping an electoral drift.
But since the movement split in January the combined vote of the rival factions has almost halved, according to opinion polls. Of the 9% prepared to vote for the extreme right next month, 5% backed Mr Le Pen and 4% Mr Mégret.
Mr Le Pen's personal image has also taken a serious knock. A physical attack on a woman socialist candidate, a revival of anti-semitic remarks in Germany, and the discovery of arms in his car in Brussels have threatened his status as an MEP and encouraged allegations by party rivals that he is dangerously unstable.
Although the court awarded Mr Le Pen sole use of the party headquarters, the administration has been undermined by legal battles, which have sucked money from the rival groups and forced the opposing leaders to raise loans or sack campaign staff.
The consequent decline in the front's influence is one of the most significant shifts in French politics for many years, enabling the Gaullist and centrist movements to reconsider the temptation to adopt Mr Le Pen's anti-immigration policies while relishing the front's self-destruction.
Mr Mégret gambled his and the party's future on a revolt inspired by accusations that Mr Le Pen was too old to run a vigorous political movement. But the rebellion exposed a fundamental divide between older populist factions which backed Mr Le Pen and educated middle-class extremists who preferred Mr Mégret's more studied ideology.
The fracture was dramatically exposed at rival May Day parades in honour of Joan of Arc. Mr Le Pen and Mr Mégret, each attracted crowds of 3,000, but together they amounted to only half the number which traditionally gathered to hear the two on the same platform.
Mr Mégret's refusal to give in owes much to the fact that he has won over the majority of party officials and remained the dominant extremist leader in the front's southern strongholds. Two of the four front-controlled municipal councils there support him.