Ségolène Royal’s battle to become the first woman president of France begins in earnest on Friday, after the Socialist party on Thursday night overwhelmingly endorsed her as their candidate in next April’s election.
The ”madonna of the opinion polls”, whose personal battle against a domineering military colonel father and the perceived sexism of her party’s old guard has fascinated France even more than her policies, secured a decisive victory after a rancorous United States-style primary.
”This moment of happiness is an intense experience. You won’t be disappointed,” she told party members on Thursday night, as it appeared that she had taken 55-60% of the vote. She repeated her promise to ”change the face of French politics”, saying that she was preparing to ”climb the mountain” of next spring’s elections to wrestle power from the right.
A former education and family minister who once advised François Mitterrand, and best known for introducing paternity leave to France, she is a self-styled outsider.
She has surprised the Socialist old school by side-stepping the party machine, using the internet to build up a support base and appealing directly to the public by promising to break with France’s unpopular, aloof political elite.
Her supporters, known as ”royalistes”, say she is the the most popular figure of the left among the public and the only one able to beat likely centre-right candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister, to the presidency. A poll published on thursday in Le Point showed she would be neck and neck with him in the final round.
In an unprecedented primary race with TV debates, her more experienced rivals, former finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn and former premier Laurent Fabius, accused her of rabble-rousing, betraying the party’s core values, and having a slim grasp of international affairs.
Royal’s victory makes her the first woman presidential candidate for a major party in France. It also cements the 53-year-old mother of four as the senior partner of France’s ultimate power couple: her partner is party leader François Hollande.
Her endorsement marks a change in how the Socialists will position themselves to wrest power from the right — nearly 12 years under Jacques Chirac has left a legacy of unemployment, stagnation, debt and unrest on its run-down estates.
With Chirac now the most unpopular president in the fifth republic’s history, the left is hoping to win for the first time since Mitterrand. Royal appears to represent a third way for the French left, outspokenly declaring her admiration for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, seen by many as a traitor to the socialist cause.
She sparked controversy by challenging Socialist cornerstones, suggesting a review of the cherished 35-hour week and recommending young offenders be made to do military service.
Unexpected rise
Ségolène Royal (53) is head of Poitou-Charentes regional government, and served as a minister in past Socialist governments — although has never held a major Cabinet post.
She is best known for campaigns against school bullying and child pornography, and for introducing paternity leave. Her rise has been so unexpected that a book last year profiling the 15 most likely presidential winners, she was not mentioned.
Although educated at an elite graduate school where she met her partner, Francois Hollande, the Socialist party leader, she has positioned herself as an outsider who will reengage with the people and end the reign of the political elite — she sees the people as the ”experts”, and wants citizen juries to hold politicians to account.
This year, she was the only MP among France’s top 50 most loved personalities. FHM magazine voted her one of the world’s sexiest women, and stolen pictures in a bikini on the beach dominated summer news. She has attracted a public curious about her difficult childhood, one of eight children in a strict family dominated by an authoritarian father, a colonel who believed women’s only role was to procreate. – Guardian Unlimited Â