Segolene-Headlines

The big story these days on the left is that Segolène Royal's bid to be the socialist candidate is becoming more realistic by the day - and has reached some kind of critical mass.


Ségolène Royal's opinion poll ratings have surged ahead of all the other likely candidates for next year's French presidential elections partly thanks to her innovative campaigning style on the internet and in magazine interviews.
In to the latest poll, published in Le Figaro newspaper on Thursday, a year ahead of the first round of elections, Ms Royal won the backing of 34 per cent of respondents.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of the ruling UMP party and most probable standard bearer for the French right, was the second most popular politician, with 30 per cent.
The prospect of a "Sarko-Ségo" battle between two such contrasting and colourful personalities has already captivated the French media. (...)
Ms Royal's popularity appears partly due to her novelty as a serious female candidate - the former environment minister appeared on the cover of five magazines last week - as well as her maverick campaigning style. Ms Royal has launched a website called desirsdavenir.org (desires for the future), encouraging the public to contribute to a "participative forum" and promising to adopt the best ideas.
Her critics have argued that her "wiki-programme" has only exposed the hollowness of her ideology but it has certainly aroused the interest of France's internet users.
(...)
However, he added: "Her ideas, which she has largely borrowed from Tony Blair, do not seem to me to be compatible with the Socialist party's increasing drift to the left."
That last theme is being replayed all over the place (there was an article in Libé yesterday purporting to show that she was "borrowing" lots of her programme from the center-right), but let's all remember what she actually said about Blair: he should not be demonised because he actually increased spending on helathcare and education massively...


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Le blog de Basile, la France vue d'ailleurs, revient sur l'écho que reçoit la pré-candidature de Ségolène Royal dans la presse britannique.


Principal atout de Ségolène Royal: elle ne ressemble à aucun des caciques de la classe politique française, au propre et au figuré. «Ses yeux bleus et son sourire à la blancheur éclatante font penser à une charmante présentatrice de télévision». Puis son style de vie, ajoute le Times, plait aux Françaises soucieuses de relever le «double défi de leur carrière professionnelle et celui d’élever leurs enfants, tout en étant capables d’apprécier fromage et vin… sans prendre du poids».
“Her glossy hair, blue eyes and blinding white teeth make her look more like a glamorous television anchorwoman than a politician.”

Pour autant, note le Sunday Times qui a de la mémoire, la tâche de «Sarko» face à «Ségo» sur ce terrain de la féminisation n’est pas des plus faciles dans un pays machiste dont le président, Jacques Chirac, avait commis une indélicatesse, rappelle-t-il, à l’égard de Margaret Thatcher lors d’un sommet européen il y a dix-huit ans avec son non-authentifié mais célèbre «que me veut cette mégère, mes couilles sur un plateau?» Pour les Françaises, il n’y a pas photo. Ségolène Royal reste un booster de carrière dont le succès les aiderait «personnellement à progresser» dans la hiérarchie au sein des entreprises, selon un sondeur interrogé par quotidien de Londres.

Chercher la femme

Le Spiegel dans son édition internationale évique la «Walkyrie des Deux-Sèvres». Le magazine allemand qui tout en notant qu’elle ne s’est pas encore prononcée sur les problèmes de fond concernant le chômage, la retraite, l’immigration ou le déficit budgétaire de la France, salue son pragmatisme qui tranche avec «l’incapacité de ses camarades à enterrer leurs utopies». L’«heure de la princesse a sonné» estime le Spiegel.



Ségolène Royal Could Soon Become France's Next President

By Stefan Simons in Paris

For the first time in the history of France, a woman stands a chance of moving into the Elysée Palace. Socialist politician Ségolène Royal is benefiting from the weaknesses of her rivals, who have been handicapped by a controversial labor law that brought millions of students to the streets in protest.

With its neat side streets, sidewalks lined with flower pots, a bakery, two bistros and a hair salon, the town square of Neuville-de-Poitou, an hour's drive from the southwestern city of Poitiers, conveys an air of carefully tended tranquility. Stacks of fruit and vegetables, sheep cheese and links of sausages on the market square complete the picture.

Socialist Royal: "Ségolène is currently unbeatable."

On the outskirts of this bucolic little town, Ségolène Royal holds court in a building supply warehouse. Water drips into a 200-liter rain barrel next to a sale rack of rubber boots and winter coats.
In the presence of the mayor, local officials and a dozen skeptical farmers, Royal, the president of the Poitou-Charentes region, is calling on her constituents to conserve water. She has just launched a program dubbed "Operation 10,000 Rainwater Barrels," and now she's promoting the program with what would seem a rather traditional argument: "In the past, everyone had a pond or a cistern. Now we need collection barrels to help protect the environment."

At first glance, the appearance may seem a bit small potatoes for a woman with ambitions to capture the country's highest office. But it's just one example of what people here have dubbed the "Methode Royal," or Royal method, the candidate's skillful way of establishing connections between seemingly small issues and the big picture, in this case, the local drought and global climate change.

C’est la presse britannique qui exprime le plus d’enthousiasme pour Ségolène Royal, et ceci même les propos qu'elle avait tenus à l'encontre du Premier ministre anglais.


Le Financial Times laisse transparaître une admiration pour la femme politique : « Elle a fait preuve de son indépendance d’esprit le mois dernier en allant au Chili pour soutenir la candidature à la présidence de Michelle Bachelet, au lieu d’assister aux commémorations des dix ans de la mort de Mitterrand. Un comportement qui ne lui a pas fait beaucoup d’amis au sein de son parti ».

L’hebdomadaire The Economist a également publié un portrait positif de Ségolène Royal le 12 janvier 2006.

Le quotidien The Guardian la décrit comme « élégante, assurée, compétente sur tout ce qui l’intéresse — la famille, l’école, l’environnement. Elle est sensibly vague (« intelligemment vague ») sur le reste — la politique étrangère, l’économie (...). Mince, joyeuse, elle présente impeccablement. Elle mène une campagne populaire, sans l’aide des grands chefs du parti ».

The Observer, lui, estime que l’élection d’une femme en France pourrait inciter à des réformes au sein de la monarchie britannique, et notamment la suppression de la règle qui fait que la couronne doit être transmise en priorité à un héritier mâle : « Le monde évolue, non seulement au Libéria et au Chili, mais plus près de chez nous. En France, la femme politique centre-gauche Ségolène Royal vise la présidence... En même temps, en Grande Bretagne, nous faisons marche arrière en ce qui concerne l’émancipation des femmes ».

Dans une interview de Ségolène Royal pour la BBC, la journaliste Caroline Wyatt s’étonne du traitement médiatique de la candidate en France : « Comme exemple des difficultés auxquelles serait confrontée une femme qui poserait sa candidature au poste de chef d’Etat en France, les médias français ne parlent que d’une seule chose : si elle devait porter ou pas des talons aiguilles lors de son voyage au Chili ».

Selon le Daily Telegraph, la véritable notoriété internationale Ségolène Royal,est due à son statut de «première femme en France qui pèse réellement sur la scène politique depuis la désastreuse parenthèse d’Edith Cresson dans les années 90» et à son «impressionnante percée dans les sondages».


Darling of the Left leads polls in French presidential race


Ségolène Royal has emerged from France's job law crisis better placed than ever to become the country's first female president, polls published yesterday showed.

She is not only the Left's most popular candidate but would beat Nicolas Sarkozy, the Right's strongest prospect, in the race to succeed Jacques Chirac, a survey found for the first time.

Miss Royal, 52, whose early career was championed by the late François Mitterrand, would win 51 per cent of the vote compared with 49 per cent for Mr Sarkozy, the interior minister, on the basis of the poll for Paris Match.

Her ascendancy was reinforced by a poll for Le Point which, based on preferences for personalities, put her five points ahead of Mr Sarkozy, a reversal of their fortunes only four months ago.

The findings, which assume that the highly unpopular Mr Chirac will stand down in 2007, confirm Miss Royal's impressive rise. She has eclipsed all other prominent socialists, including the party leader François Hollande, the father of her four children.

Miss Royal, elegant and confident, is seen by many French, previously considered unprepared for a woman president, as a breath of fresh air. She made no false moves during protests that led to Monday's surrender by Mr Chirac and his prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, and withdrawal of the contentious "first job contracts" law (CPE).

Early in the crisis Miss Royal, as president of the Poitou-Charentes regional council, declared that funding would be denied to any company that took on staff using CPEs, which would have made firing young employees easier.

Miss Royal's critics, who include the Left's so-called "elephants", question her experience and qualities as a potential head of state. Alluding to Mr Hollande's own possible bid for the job, the former prime minister Laurent Fabius, who also wants to be president, has joked: "But who will look after the children?"

But the sniping, and the suspicions of the far Left that her qualified admiration for Tony Blair is dangerous heresy, have not damaged Miss Royal's standing in the polls. Allies of Mr Sarkozy believe she has profited from a rash of positive publicity and hope that her appeal will wane as the debate over policy develops in the run-up to the elections.

Despite slipping behind Miss Royal in the ratings, the interior minister has avoided serious personal fall-out from the job law crisis as the government staggered from one failure to another in its bid to save the CPE.

Mr Sarkozy pleased his own supporters with strident backing for riot police caught up in violent demonstrations and kept his options open by clearly distinguishing between genuine protesters and rioters. He also expressed persistent doubts about what he recognised as a deeply unpopular law.

This was a high-risk strategy given his commitment to a "rupture" with France's failed social and economic model. But in an interview with Le Figaro, he said that while the country was in need of change, it would accept only reforms it viewed as just.

By Colin Randall in Paris

Can Ségolène Royal, the politician with the elegant profile and stratospheric poll ratings, lead the Socialists to victory in next year's presidential election?

In the confusion that has gripped France in recent months, with immigrant youth riots followed by huge protests turned violent, Ms. Royal, 52, is the only politician who looks good.
On Thursday, she graced the cover of four French magazines. "The Mystery Royal," announced Le Point, while Le Nouvel Observateur explored "What Is in Her Head?" VSD, which covers entertainment and news, asked, "President Ségolène: Is She Ready?"

"For the first time, the French say they are ready to vote for a woman; this is a historic event," she told Paris Match in its cover story that proclaimed, "The Irresistible Ascension."
The media's interest is not accidental. Voters are disillusioned with President Jacques Chirac, who has held office since 1995, and less than enthusiastic about the gray-haired white men who have long run the opposition Socialist Party.

With the government in disarray over protests against a youth jobs law and the Socialists doing little more than scoring points, Ms. Royal — a member of Parliament, regional president and former minister — has moved quickly to fill the vacuum.
She is the most popular potential Socialist presidential candidate by far in poll after poll. She even edged past Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the front-runner on the right, in a hypothetical runoff for the presidency in two recent polls.
She calls the jobs law, intended to encourage employers to hire young workers by making it easier to fire them, "a scandal" and "a form of violence." Asked in an interview late last month what she would do differently if she were in Mr. Chirac's shoes, she exclaimed: "I would be intelligent! Between the revolt in the suburbs last fall and the youth in the streets today, what a beautiful image of France we are giving to the world!"

Projecting a beautiful image is something that Ms. Royal does well. In addition to the magazine covers, she was the featured guest on TF1's television news program on Thursday. The first chapter of "Desires for the Future," her new online book intended to open a dialogue with the French people, appeared Thursday on her new Web site.
Ms. Royal also has helped cement her political standing at home by making a name for herself abroad. "I am globalizing myself," she said, laughing, about her interviews with foreign journalists in recent months. She annoyed the Socialist Party's old guard when she skipped the memorial for the 10th anniversary of the death of President François Mitterrand in January, jetting off to Chile instead, where she seized headlines by campaigning with the Socialist presidential candidate, Michelle Bachelet, who won.

A longtime admirer of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, Ms. Royal said she tentatively planned to appear with Mrs. Clinton at a conference in Washington in June.

Ms. Royal's domestic political strategy has been to carve out home-and-hearth issues that she promotes from her home base of Poitiers, where she presides over the Poitou-Charentes region of western France: saving the environment, improving schools, promoting opportunities for women, helping the disabled.
In late March, one of the items on the council's agenda was how to combat bad publicity about the bird flu virus in France. She announced a regionwide picnic featuring chicken, "to eradicate fear." And not only chicken. "Guinea fowl! Duck! Pigeon! Quail!" she said.

A fierce party infighter with a sharp tongue, she is not universally loved back home, especially by the men. "She is a pretty woman who tries to project a modern and open image," said Dominique Clément, the center-right mayor of the town of Saint Benoit. "But it's all an act. The packaging is beautiful. The marketing is slick. But the bottle is empty."
Ms. Royal seems to have little patience with open-ended debate in her council. When Henri de Richemont, a center-right council member and a lawyer, interrupted one time too many during the recent session, she lost her smile, crossed her arms and cut him off. "Very well, thank you for your intervention," she said curtly. "Anyone else?"

"She is the queen — who listens to no one and decides by herself," Mr. de Richemont said afterward.
But criticism can backfire. As soon as she said last September that she might run in the May 2007 presidential election, she rose sharply in the polls, even though some of her party brothers dismissed her declaration as outlandish.
"Who will look after the children?" Laurent Fabius, the former prime minister, joked. Another prominent Socialist, Jack Lang, declared, "The presidential race is not a beauty contest."

Since then, Ms. Royal has asserted her right to run. "I was attacked violently — by men," she said. "They said, 'She's a passing fad.' 'She's the cherry on the cake.' 'This shows that politics is zero.' 'She has nothing to say.' 'She's not tough enough.' All this criticism feeds my popularity. Besides, the politicians who attacked me were unpopular themselves."
Asked whether she considered herself arrogant, she replied: "Oh, no, surely not. Authoritarian. There is a demand for authority. I do not cultivate authority for pleasure."

Even the first lady, Bernadette Chirac, has rallied around her. "She can be a serious candidate and can even win," Mrs. Chirac said in February. "She has a look."

The strategy of leaders on the right has been to welcome Ms. Royal onto the battlefield, perhaps because they do not believe she poses a threat. Mr. Sarkozy has said she would be a "respectable opponent." Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has said he and Ms. Royal have gotten along "very well" since their days as classmates at the elite École Nationale d'Administration.
Despite her enshrinement by the news media, French voters are not used to new faces: Mr. Chirac and his predecessor, Mr. Mitterrand, reached the presidency after several tries.
It is by no means even sure that she will win the party's nomination when it chooses a candidate in November. Others seek the nomination, including, awkwardly, Francois Hollande, Ms. Royal's partner of 25 years who also happens to be the leader of the Socialist Party and with whom she has four children.

"If I am the best-placed to win, I will be ready," she said.

That they never married has not hurt either of them politically, and she has said that she and Mr. Hollande will decide together which one of them will try to run. Still, she struggles to maintain her independence, saying in the interview, "We are not a couple."

Her detractors fault her for a lack of experience in economic and national security matters. (She has led three second-tier ministries: Environment, School Education and Family and Childhood.) With the spotlight now on her, her views are being closely examined, and like other Socialists she has yet to say what she would do about unemployment, the burden of France's generous social welfare system or the country's fear of globalization. But when asked whether her lack of experience and her narrow base of issues were liabilities, she said, "Men who pretend to be experts in everything, aren't telling the truth."

Elaine Sciolino