The middle finger works here, too. In the street outside Socialist Party headquarters in Paris Sunday night, on the rue de Solférino near the Musée d'Orsay, giant screens projected the election night telecasts to a disappointed young crowd. Their fallen heroine, Ségolène Royal, had minutes before concluded her unsettlingly smiley concession speech with a rousing, "Vive la Republique! Vive la France!" to plucky cheers. But when new President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy chose the same couplet to close out his victory speech, up rose from the crowd a flutter of birds, as it were.

That wasn't the last this night would see of that universal gesture. But among Socialist Party veterans rendered hostile by defeat, most would prove proverbial and aimed within the family. For any political ornithologist, it was plain to see: This would be the night things got ugly for the Socialist Party. Yet with make-or-break legislative elections on June 10 and 17 now just weeks away, there's hardly time for cranky reflection, never mind rebellion or revolution, if the party wants to limit the damage of Sunday's loss.

Unusually, Royal conceded victory to Sarkozy less than five minutes after polls closed on a heavy Socialist defeat - with the tally now officially 53.06 percent for the new president, 46.94 for Royal. The loss marked the party's third in as many presidential elections and the Socialists' lowest score in a leadership run-off since 1965. Of the now-six presidents of France's Fifth Republic, Royal's mentor, François Mitterrand, remains the only left-winger to have claimed the top post, in 1981 and again in 1988. Against that backdrop, Royal's instantaneous address made sense.

"I gave it all my strength and I will continue with you and alongside you," she said, at once conceding the presidency and vowing to lead the party into the crucial legislative polls. "What we began together, we will continue together," said Royal. "You can count on me to deepen the renewal of the left and the search for new confluences beyond its current borders. It is a condition for our future victories." She'd thrown down her gauntlet.

Within minutes, the knives came out. Dominique Strauss-Kahn led the charge. The left-of-center/center-of-left Socialist Party veteran was tipped as a favorite to be Royal's prime minister had she won. Now that she'd lost, he spoke as a detached observer, an innocent bystander, but an angry one. "It's a very grave defeat," declared Strauss-Kahn (known as DSK) on television. "The left has never been so weak- because the French left still hasn't renovated itself. For five years, we haven't renewed ourselves."

And DSK, who was runner-up to Royal in her landslide victory in the November primary, volunteered to take over. "The social-democratic renewal that I initiated has yet to win over the Socialist Party. We must now carry out this renewal. It's the condition for hope and I am available for that."

DSK and his brethren mixed thin, requisite compliments to their defeated candidate with ready and lengthy listings of what went wrong. Laurent Fabius, the other Socialist primary loser, a social-democrat himself before he shifted strategies and swung well-left, lamented, "We didn't sufficiently convince people that our candidate could be head of state." And Fabius criticized Royal's go-it-alone campaign style, "The left is 'we' not 'I.'"

Royal's partner, the Socialist Party leader François Hollande, called for unity Monday and said he wouldn't tolerate "the settling of scores." But if you have to ask, it's too late. Strauss-Kahn Monday morning persisted, complaining of a lack of clarity in the Socialists' campaign.

"When at the end of the day, we aren't clear in what we are telling the French people, the French people cannot follow us," DSK said on radio. "We talk to the French people about nuclear energy, but we aren't clear on the subject. We talk to the French people about protectionism and the value-added tax, but since every position exists in the Socialist Party, well, we aren't clear [there] either."

There is little doubt of the need for the Socialist Party to reform. When Mitterrand first won the presidency in 1981, he could rely on strong Communist Party support to buffer his numbers through the second round. But while the French far-left can still field six candidates (including at least three Trotskyites this year), its hold on the Socialist imagination far outweighs its heft at the ballot box.

The options for renewal are complex - unite the left, shift to the center, or do a little of both by consolidating with a part of the wayward left (say, the Green Party), and shedding the reds, while cozying up to the most palatable elements rightwards (say, François Bayrou's new centrist party). When Ségolène Royal began her meteoric rise more than a year ago, she was remarkable for her centrism, questioning leftist unquestionables like the 35-hour workweek. But her independent flights of fancy soon gave way to political imperatives.

Trouble is, the evidently divided party cannot risk implosion or engage in real reform now this close to the legislative elections. There just isn't time to really stir things up. Or as Vincent Peillon, one of Royal's campaign spokesmen, told NEWSWEEK at Socialist headquarters Sunday night, "If they want to give Sarkozy another present, let's have palace revolutions on the rue de Solférino." He added sarcastically, "The French people will be very interested in that."

The party cannot, however, afford to spend too much time on recriminations. On Saturday, it must discuss future directions at the Socialists' National Council strategy meeting Saturday. Electoral lists for the June polls are due by May 18, with all the alliance-making and horse-trading implied in keeping President-elect Sarkozy's right from holding all the power in the next legislature.

What's next for the Socialist Party? As the palace burns, it's too early to look for the ashes, never mind the phoenix. But the feathers are flying on the rue de Solférino.