THE leader of France’s socialists, François Hollande, admitted yesterday that he faced a predicament: he is being upstaged in the race to succeed President Chirac by Ségolène Royal, his partner and mother of his four children.
To the discomfort of M Hollande and the other socialist barons, Mme Royal, a glamorous, sharp-tongued former minister, has become the darling of the opinion polls and runaway favourite to represent the party in the presidential elections in April next year.
The surge of support for the president of the western Poitou-Charentes region raises the prospect that a woman might finally win France’s presidency. Colleagues have long deemed a her lightweight but some commentators believe that she offers the freshness the feuding party needs to win power.
In November Mme Royal, 52, caused apoplexy among party elders by predicting that she would emerge naturally as the Socialist’s candidate. “The others will have no choice. It will be me,” she said.
M Hollande, whose own presidential ambitions are handicapped by a lack of charisma, has given his telegenic partner no public encouragement. Yesterday he appealed to Mme Royal and the other would-be candidates not to jump the gun before the party starts picking its champion this autumn.
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For the first time he acknowledged that Ségolène, as she is popularly known, could win the nomination. “It is possible,” he said between clenched teeth. “It’s obvious that a woman can seek the highest post just as much as a man.” M Hollande wants to be nominated but has not publicly declared.
Encouragement for Mme Royal has come from the Centre Right’s favourite, Nicolas Sarkozy, 50, the Interior Minister and leader of M Chirac’s party. “She is a high-level candidate, someone who says interesting things,” he said last week. “If I should become candidate I would be happy to be able to debate with her.”
M Sarkozy’s words smacked of mischief. He he is aware of the anguish that her rise causes her rivals: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former Finance Minister, and Laurent Fabius, a former Prime Minister.
The chief criticism of Mme Royal, who has specialised in family issues and as an opponent of pornography, is her lack of experience in economic and foreign policy. Colleagues, whose sniping often has a misogynist flavour, depict her as a self-promoter. “I can’t take the Ségolène scenario seriously,” M Strauss-Kahn said. M Fabius showed Gallic condescension by joking: “Who will look after the children?” The party old guard is pressing Lionel Jospin, the former Prime Minister, to stand. The polls suggest, however, that she would crush him.
Mme Royal said of her former boss: “He never saw me as a politician in my own right. At heart, he must be one of those who think that François doesn’t know how to keep me in line.”