Future of Nicolas Sarkozy's political party 'in doubt' "What I feared has happened," warned Alain Juppé, Mr Chirac's former prime minister. The movement has emerged divided and thus weakened by this excessive confrontation. Throughout the campaign, it has been less a question of the future of the UMP and more about the two candidates' obsession with 2017," when the next presidential election will take place. The very existence of the UMP is in doubt. The vote was supposed to determine whether the UMP would stick to its centre-Right roots under Mr Fillon's leadership or swing towards the "uninhibited Right" promoted by the firebrand Mr Copé, whose campaign included claims that "anti-white racism" was blighting France's suburbs. It would also normally decide the UMP's candidate for the next presidential election - though the party has announced primaries for 2016. But the calamitous deadlock has effectively discredited both rivals and played into the hands of one man, analysts said - Mr Sarkozy. "Even without knowing who the winner is, we can state that the true victor of this vote is called Nicolas Sarkozy," the business daily Les Echos wrote in an editorial. Surveys suggest that two-thirds of party members see Mr Sarkozy as their brightest hope in wresting power back from the ruling Socialists. Mr Sarkozy, who lost six months ago after just one term, has embarked on a Tony Blair-style international conference career, but has let it be known he could return if "morally" he felt he had no choice. However, first he will have to clear himself of corruption allegations. On Thursday, a Bordeaux judge will summon him for questioning over an illegal party funding probe, according to Le Figaro. The opposition bloodbath has momentarily taken pressure off Socialist President Francois Hollande, whose approval ratings have slumped to as low as 36 percent. It could help boost support for the centrist UDI party. But the party with the most to gain from the Right's "catastrophe scenario" is the far-Right National Front. "It is obvious that whoever is elected president of the UMP will have no legitimacy whatsoever given that he will be in charge of a party broken in two," claimed FN deputy leader Florian Philipott.