Clashes among top politicians in France have ensured that the European elections are all over French headlines this month.

Sparring between high-profile politicians in France is dominating the media coverage of the country's preparations for European parliament elections in June. Unlike a number of other EU countries, where the European election is often a lackluster affair, the candidacy of top French politicians has ensured steady coverage of the quinquennial event

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner tried to end a storm of controversy on Monday about how he intends to vote in the forthcoming elections after initially failing to back a cabinet colleague vociferously enough. Meanwhile, a war of words has emerged between competing candidates Daniel Cohn-Bendit of the Green Party and current justice minister Rachida Dati. It remains to be seen if this clash of the big personalities will have any affect on voter turnout on June 7.

In recent days, French papers began noting that Kouchner was taking his time in coming out in favor president Nicolas Sarkozy's party in the forthcoming June poll. Kouchner, who was a member of the Socialist Party (PS) for decades, was brought into president Nicolas Sarkozy's center-right cabinet in 2007. In an interview with the daily Le Parisien published on Saturday, he said he would take a "wait and see" approach and look at the party platforms of both the socialists and Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) before deciding how to cast his ballot in the greater Paris, or Ile de France, consituency.

Angered conservatives

After joining Sarkozy's government, Kouchner, the long-time head of Doctors without Borders, was excluded from membership in the Socialist Party. The fact that he had been hesitant in offering his backing for agriculture minister Michel Barnier in his bid for European parliament raised eyebrows in the French capital and angered conservatives.

Other members of Sarkozy's UMP immediately attacked the foreign minister for his lack of government loyalty. Kouchner, who didn't vote for Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election, quickly gave in to pressure this week. He released a statement on Monday saying he would vote for Barnier. "It is the conception of Europe that I have always defended," he said. "It is the conception of the government of which I am a member."

The socialists were nevertheless quick to pounce on Kouchner's prevarication. On Sunday, Harlem Désir, who is heading the PS list in Ile de France, described the minister's hesitation as akin to "a salesman who hesitates to accompany you in the car he has sold you."

Meanwhile, a row has broken out between another two very high-profile candidates in same Ile de France constituency. Justice minister Rachida Dati is the No. 2 candidate on the UMP list and one of her rivals is veteran politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who has represented both the French and German Green parties in the European Parliament since 1994. Known as "Danny le Rouge (Danny the Red)," the MEP first came to prominence when he lead the French student protests of May 1968.

'Stuck in a place without cameras'

On Monday morning he questioned whether the minister, if elected, would ever bother to go to Strasbourg, where the European parliament meets once a month. Speaking to BFM radio, he quipped: "Rachida Dati will go to the European parliament? My eye, my eye!" adding "to get stuck with committees, to get stuck in a place where there are no cameras. Don't make me laugh!"

The UMP quickly demanded that Cohn-Bendit issue an apology to Dati, while the minister herself retorted: "I understand that a man of the past would seek to come out from the shadows." In a statement released on Monday evening, she said: "I ignore those like Daniel Cohn-Bendit, because in five years in the European parliament, he has not achieved any results."

Not to be outdone, Cohn-Bendit said he would indeed apologise to Dati - next year. He told Reuters that if the minister was present full-time at the parliament, attending committees and working groups, "then one year after the elections, I will present my apologies."

Will mud-slinging engage voters?

Dati was one of three women from an immigrant background to be appointed to Sarkozy's cabinet in 2007. A controversial figure, who has been as much a fixture in the gossip columns and glamour magazines as the political press, Dati opted to compete in the European elections after she was effectively sacked by Sarkozy in January. However, she is to stay on in government until just after the elections in June.

It remains to be seen if all this mud-slinging will actually engage voters in the European elections. The latest Eurobarometer poll suggests that around 47 percent of eligible voters in France intend to mark their ballot on election day in June. That may not seem like a lot, but it's far higher than the average of 34 percent, and way more than the 13 percent of Poles who say they will bother to vote.

With three and half weeks to go until polling day on June 7, the governing UMP is ahead in the latest opinion poll. The party is poised to get 27 percent of votes, with the socialists trailing at 21.5 percent, according to the most recent poll by Ifop published in the weekly Paris Match. The centrist Democratic Movement party looks set to attract 13.5 percent and the Greens can expect to get 7 percent of the vote. The rest of the votes are going to the margins of politics. A host of small far-left parties are likely to attract 15.5 percent of the vote between them while the far-right Front National looks like recapturing the 7.5 percent it won in 2004.