Segolene-Headlines

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.