Outgoing French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is due to be made head of President Jacques Chirac's governing UMP party on Sunday.
He is replacing Mr Chirac's ally, Alain Juppe, who was found guilty in a party financing scandal.
Mr Sarkozy is seen as an ambitious man who may use the post to build up support for a presidential run in 2007 against Mr Chirac, his former mentor.
Mr Sarkozy is one of France's most popular politicians.
French newspapers are calling the conference of the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement the anointing or coronation of Nicolas Sarkozy - and they are only half-joking.
The "Sarko show", as one paper headlined it, will be the most expensive party conference France has ever seen, with much of the money going on slick, US-style presentation.
Former Chirac protege
The brashness of the event - and its meticulous planning - is seen in France as typical Mr Sarkozy.
He is a charismatic man in a hurry to get to the very top, and he makes no secret of it.
The son of a Hungarian immigrant, he is one of France's most popular politicians, succeeding at two of the toughest jobs in the cabinet - first as interior minister, and - until Monday - as finance minister.
Mr Sarkozy was once seen as a protege by President Chirac, but has now turned into a seemingly unstoppable rival.
He has even divided the UMP into those who will remain loyal to Mr Chirac, and an apparently much larger and younger group which sees Mr Sarkozy as their best hope of winning the presidency again in 2007.
Mr Sarkozy's political beliefs are almost as hard to pin down as the man himself, who is rarely off the nation's screens or its front pages - a hyperactive blur of energy.
On the economy, he has shown a mixture of protectionism with a dose of unexpectedly liberal thinking, telling the French they must not be afraid of economic success and encouraging them to work harder.
At the interior ministry, he was tough on crime, yet liberal on many social issues and believes France must do much more to promote ethnic minorities and integrate its large Muslim population.