A Frenchwoman in politics. The Ségolène effect

Date: 13/01/06

A popular female politician whom the Socialist Party refuses to take seriously

ONE by one, they filed past to pay their respects. Last weekend, a parade of Socialist grandees gathered at the Jarnac cemetery to remember Francois Mitterrand on the tenth anniversary of the former president's death. With one notable absentee: Segolene Royal. While the Socialist bosses marked the past, the darling of the French left jetted off to meet the future: a trip to Chile to back Michelle Bachelet, its (female) Socialist presidential candidate ()see page 52.

Ms Royal's media-savvy foreign excursion comes at an awkward time for her party's leadership. For months, as her poll ratings have climbed, Socialist heavyweights have queued up to dismiss the president of the Poitou-Charentes region as a media mirage. But the more they write her off, the more her popularity grows. In one poll for Le Figaro, she beat not only Bernard Kouchner, the ever-popular humanitarian doctor, but even Nicolas Sarkozy, the centre-right favourite and head of the ruling UMP party. As a presidential candidate for the left, two other new polls put her firmly as top choice.

Surely the party should be pleased to have such a popular favourite ahead of next year's presidential election? It is due in November to select its candidate, and there is no clear front-runner. Moreover, the Socialists are still smarting from divisions caused by the decision of Laurent Fabius to lead a rebel camp against the European Union constitution. This week, Mr Fabius, a former prime minister, said he would run for the party's nomination, adding haughtily, apropos of Ms Royal, that "all poll predictions have always been wrong." Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister, is expected to declare soon too.

These internal rivalries may make it harder to unify behind a single name. Hence the persistent chorus talking Ms Royal down. "She has no foreign or economic experience, and a very difficult personality," sniffs one insider. There is also the small complication that her partner is the Socialist Party's boss, Francois Hollande. Could he sink his ambitions to promote hers? Could they somehow run as a double ticket?

Perhaps the most intriguing endorsement of Ms Royal has come from Mr Sarkozy, not usually one to praise the left. She is, he says, "the most interesting" Socialist personality. They resemble each other, he adds, as "atypical" politicians. In one sense, he has a point: each has cultivated an image as an antidote to the Parisian elite, an outsider in touch with ordinary folk. But in another, his motive is less flattering. The more she is promoted as a serious contender, the more divided her party will be--and the better the prospects for Mr Sarkozy.

Feature looks at the rising important of Ségolène Royal in the Socialist Party in France.