A day out with Ségolène

Back from an audience in the Royal presence (today's Times). It's one thing following France's love affair with Ségolène Royal through the media and another spending time with the lady as she goes about her long-term campaign to become the first woman to occupy the Republican throne.

After a hand-bagging from Margaret Thatcher, the late President Francois Mitterrand once described the then British Prime Minister as having "the eyes of Caligula with the mouth of Marilyn Monroe." With a little softening, the image could also be applied to France's favourite Socialist. A day with Royal makes clear how much her male rivals are off the mark when they put her down as emotional and lacking in a statesman's stature. Some ruthlessness obviously lies behind the glamorous looks and the constant smile that has helped make her the darling of the media a year ahead of the election.

I spent International Women's Day following Royal around the ancient city of Poitiers, her fiefdom as president of the Poitou-Charentes -- a rural region that includes the home of Cognac and the port of la Rochelle. She was kind enough to let me travel with her in her car and to chat on the way back to Paris in the train on which she commutes twice a week. She wanted to know if she could check in advance the quotes that I would use in reporting our conversation. The practice is common in the French press, but she did not insist when I pointed out that this was not our custom. Talking to foreign media rather than the French is part of her strategy for pacing what she expects to be a marathon to win over her own party and then the country in the elections in April next year.

This is clearly the chance of Royal's life and you can see her determination not to blow it. Surrounded by a small team of advisers, she is juggling her work as member of Parliament for the Deux Sèvres, as Madame la Présidente at Poitiers, mother of four, partner of François Hollande, the party leader -- and as apprentice stateswoman. She says that she finds the long train commuting relaxing because she can get on with work. She is also spending a lot of time on airliners, making almost weekly trips outside France to equip herself with the international stature that the condescending party elders say she lacks. She says that Hillary Clinton has just invited her to visit New York in July. 

Watching Royal at work, you can see the grit behind the smile, rather like Tony Blair, whom she greatly admires -- unlike most of her party who see him as a traitor to the socialist cause. In Poitiers, those who have crossed Ségolène have been stung by the ferocity of the Parisian civil servant and lawyer who is held to be offering a breath of fresh air for France. Authoritarian, intolerant, a slave driver, say the victims of her sometimes brutal decisions. Would they say the same about a man, I wonder? The male version might be more about being tough and decisive.  Daniel Bernard, author of her first biography, Madame Royal, says that she has Joan of Arc's sense of mission and the management style of a Valkyrie.

Royal is all charm in the train as she laughs off the sniping against her candidacy from the "elephants" of the Socialist party. This is the crew of senior old hands who each believe that the party's time has come once again and that, having paid their dues in office over decades, they deserve to be Jacques Chirac's successor. "Machos who are afraid of losing their monopoly," she says.

The Joan of Arc side is there when her eyes light up when I mentioned the feeling that she seemed to have touched something in the French mood. Something is in the air, she said. France is ready for a woman president. 

Royal's main tactic so far has been to reveal nothing about the way that she would run France. She will do this in the autumn. But she did give a little on our train trip, acknowledging that the country is in a state of gloom and a "feeling of always being dragged downwards". Chirac was 100 percent to blame, she said. She went as far as talking of the need for une rupture, a clean break from the old Gallic way of doing things. The word -- inflammatory for many --  is a favourite of her opponent Nicolas Sarkozy, the reformist Interior Minister who is is the main centre-right contender for the presidency. He has backed off recently because he knows that voters are desperate to cling to the modèle social français which has broken down.

When pushed, though, Royal shows that she has nothing radical in mind. She performs a pirouette and says the break must be with la précarité. This is the disapproving buzzword for the labour market reforms that the Government and the business world believe that France badly needs. Royal says that France will only get over its fear of globalisation if it can be given more security about its jobs. In other words, she appears to believe in more of the state intervention and protection of the labour market that has landed it in its present mess. At the same time, though, she said that she would lighten the burden of the state on the country's life. There will be plenty of time for probing this contradiction in the coming months. Just about all the possible candidates are proposing the same paradox: more security while cutting back state regulation of citizens' lives. This is an old song. It is precisely what Chirac promised when he won office in 1995. It seems all too possible that his successor of left or right will be singing a version of the same discredited tune. 

Comments

Joan of Arc side, comme vous y allez !
Il est vrai qu'il y a des gens de droite qui adorent Madame Marie-Ségolène Royal, en particulier grâce à ses prises de positions sur la famille. Christiane, ma femme, qui est Villiériste, est prêtre à voter pour celle qui est du même parti que Emanuelli. C'est curieux.
Au parti socialiste elle est désignée comme "blairiste", suprême traîtrise.

[Peter Carrington]

As one who has watched with regret the self-destructive antics of the French left in recent years, I have greeted the emergence of Ségolène Royal as a welcome breath of fresh air. The prospect of a straight fight between her and Sarko in 2007 is tantalizing in that it could produce a leader from either Left or Right with a clear mandate and opportunity to break France out of its current economic and social death spiral. What then should we make of what you accurately describe as the "pirouette" that both Madam Royal and Sarko execute whenever pushed on the subject of genuine reform?

My guess is that it is the same sort of political double-speak that Tony Blair used as he reassured his Left wing that socialism was safe in his hands. In short, say whatever you have to keep as many people on board as possible until power is actually in your hands, then reveal your true reforming zeal and hope you can move fast enough to outrun the rearguard action from those crying “traitor”.

Lets not worry too much about the pirouettes, Royal and Sarkozy seem to be true reformers and are both as genuine as it is possible for a politician to be. If they can outwit the conservative (with a small 'c') forces in their respective parties and get to a fight that leaves one of them next President it is France that will be the winner and that can only be good for all of us who live here and love this country.

[Sarah]

It would be quite a change to have a head of state free of scandal and financial corruption. This is what wearies the electorate - untrustworthiness. Maybe a mother of 4 is considered too busy to muck around with prostitutes and financial wheeler-dealings, which, quite frankly, is probably true! I'm wondering how she would react in a crisis situation. That usually separates the men from the boys, as it were...

[john gregory Flinn]

Methinks she has hit the front too soon.
It gives her opponents too much time to undermine her, and her 'hob-nobbing' with Hilary might allow them to paint her as a feminist.

[Victor Tan]

I couldn't agree with Peter Carrington more. It is about time the French get their great country back on the growth track and make it a greater country. The French are capable of such achievements, only if their leaders have the courage and conviction to carry out the reforms.

[vincent]

I don't agree with Segolene when she says that France is ready for a female head of State. France is too much of a macho country. See what happened to Edith cresson : she was ridiculed from day 1, and no journalist gave her any credit at all.
I think all the fuss Segolene is making is just to guarantee her seat as Prime Minister, should the Socialists (God forbids) wins the election.
I think Nicolas Sarkozy is already the President (judging by the mess his archrival is doing at the moment).

[Andrew Robertson]

What an extraordinary comment from Peter Carrington. Segolène as a breath of fresh air ? She seems to me more like a vacuum : the fact that she has no known policy whatsoever is her trump card for the left. This is hardly the recipe for any kind of mandate and if the left is elected in 2007 I think we can look forward to more of the slide into economic and diplomatic irrelevance combined with social unrest that we have seen in recent years. God help us !

[Felix Lowe]

I'm sure that picture of Segolene has been air-brushed! She looks even more radiant and fresh-faced than normal... The Sarko/Segolene face-off promises to be quite a battle, although I can't see far beyond the former for the 2007 Presidency. C'est dans la poche.

[Samuel]

Segolène Royale has made it clear that any company hiring people on the CPE first-employment contract (if it comes into effect) will no longer receive grant aid from the Poitou-Charentes Conseil Régional. She will not, she says, encourage "précarité". We read all the time that France needs to encourage its SMEs, since they hold the key to resolving France's unemployment problem. And here we have Segolène Royale making life even more difficult for SMEs and increasing the presence of the State in corporate life. She has yet to present her full program, but it seems a fair bet to assume that it will just be more of the the same Socialist nonsense, underpinned by counter-productive neo-Marxist hatred of productive and ambitious people. Mais c'est pas grave, l'Eurostar n'est pas loin.

[John Hornsby]

Madame Royale speaks very well: nothing to upset anyone, smooth and all very PC. Definitely not a Margaret Thatcher figure who might possibly give this country the shake-up it badly needs.

[Hugues]

What if you're wrong, Mr Hornsby ?

[Marc Traverson]

Ségolène Royal est une main de fer dans un gant de velours. C'est évidemment une femme de pouvoir, et de l'espèce assez dure.

Mais supportera-t-elle la pression des éléphants socialistes, et leurs peaux de banane tout au long de l'année ? Ce sera l'épreuve du feu.