Party vote gives France's Hollande boost, fends off rebels' challenge

By Ingrid Melander and Emmanuel Jarry PARIS (Reuters) - Socialist party members backed French President Francois Hollande's policies in an internal party vote, boosting his chances of standing unopposed for a re-election ticket in 2017 despite months of tension over the government's economic line. With a large part of the vote counted, a broad-brush policy statement put forward by Hollande loyalists for the party's annual congress won more than 60 percent of the vote, a party offi