Royal the favourite to reign over left in French politics / 2 février 2006 / Financial Times / On youth unemployment, Tony Blair has had real success by using more flexibility but also more security
voilà un texte fondamental qui, après le voyage au Chili, décrit le mieux l'approche internationale de Ségolène...
Royal the favourite to reign over left in French politics
By Martin Arnold in Paris
Published: February 2 2006 02:00 | Last updated: February 2 2006 02:00
Ségolène Royal, the rising star of the French Socialist party, is a keen admirer of Tony Blair and could draw on some of the UK prime minister's policies if elected France's first woman president in next year's elections.
Her comments may surprise some people. While Mr Blair is widely admired by Europe's social democrats for reinvigorating the Labour party, that view is not widely held in France where many socialists who would otherwise be aligned with the Blair project see him as a crypto-Thatcherite.
"I think Tony Blair has been caricatured in France. It does not bother me to claim adherence to some of his ideas," Ms Royal told the FT. "He has reinvested in public services. On youth unemployment, he has had real success by using more flexibility but also more security."
"Young graduates are better treated in the UK than in France, so it is not just for tax reasons that so many of our young are leaving France to go and work in the City of London," said Ms Royal, distancing herself from her party's deeply ingrained suspicion of Anglo-Saxon capitalism and Blairism. "We must not be blocked on any issues - like the 35-hour week, for instance," she said.
However, Ms Royal may disappoint any overseas investors hoping she could become the acceptable face of French socialism, as her ideas seem to be equally inspired by late president François Mitterrand, her former political master.
"How can the government cut public sector recruitment while the interior minister is calling for more police in schools, on trains and in the suburbs?"
She is also a critic of the government's labour market reforms, giving small businesses and employers of young people more flexibility by allowing them to fire staff easily in the first two years of a contract. "It is bad. It hits youth and gives them the wrong message by devaluing work," she said.
Although much of her economic and foreign policy ideas are shrouded in mystery, work under way in a small factory in Paris's sleepy 11th arrondissement confirms her celebrity status on the French left.
The creation of a puppet modelled on Ms Royal for the satirical television show Les Guignols (the French equivalent of the UK's Spitting Image) is the latest sign that she has hit the political big time.
Ms Royal is the opinion polls' favourite to be the Socialist party candidate in next year's presidential elections.
Barely a day goes by in France without a debate on television or in the press about whether she is the left's best chance of beating Nicolas Sarkozy, the early presidential favourite on the right, or just a fad who will vanish as quickly as she arrived.
In her Poitiers regional headquarters she exudes a steely confidence, fending off questions about her private life and policies with an icy determination that has made many enemies but also fuels interest in her. "Opinion polls do not make an election," she admitted. "But what people recognise in me is the work I have done here in the region. I am a fighter, I have fought for things, people see that."
The 52-year-old former family minister shot to fame after her victory in the 2004 regional elections for Poitou-Charente, an agricultural region on France's Atlantic coast, striking a humiliating blow against the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin on the former prime minister's home turf.
Since then she has become a symbol of the public's thirst for younger, fresher faces on both sides of the political divide, amid increasing political apathy and disillusionment with the fin de règne atmosphere dogging the government of Jacques Chirac, the 73-year-old president.
Ms Royal has not officially declared herself a presidential candidate. But polls show that 50 per cent of voters think she is the best Socialist party candidate.
Her popularity reflects a leadership vacuum in the party, which is still looking to replace Lionel Jospin, the former prime minister who retired after his stinging election defeat in 2002.
Some of the public fascination stems from the fact that Ms Royal's partner, François Hollande, leader of the Socialist party, is also a potential candidate for the presidency. They met at the elite Ecole Nationale d'Administration and have four children.
Rumours abound about why they are not married and she is suing a local newspaper for erroneously suggesting it was to get around rules against them both sitting in parliament. She played down talk of a wedding: "If we got married now, everyone would say it was manipulation." Ms Royal said they would decide "together as a couple" which of them would run in September, ahead of a ballot of the 130,000 party members in November.
Ms Royal has kept a distance from the Socialist party, irritating the party's militants and its leaders, the so-called elephants.
She showed off this free spirit by visiting Chile last month to support the campaign of Michelle Bachelet in the country's elections, instead of attending the 10-year commemorations of the death of Mitterrand, for whom she worked as a presidential adviser from 1981 to 1988. Such behaviour is winning her few friends in the Socialist party. "But who will look after the kids?" cracked Laurent Fabius, former prime minister.
While such ill-judged sexist attacks have rebounded on the elephants, Ms Royal may be more worried about the mutterings of the party rank and file.
Michelle Sabban, head of women's issues in the Socialist party, complains: "In fights over women's rights, I don't remember Ségolène Royal at our side. I am waiting for substance from her on social, economic and foreign policy."
In Poitou-Charente she has earned a reputation for achievable policies affecting people's everyday lives, such as tokens for free school books, subsidies for water-heating solar panels and subsidised jobs for unemployed youths.
Ivan Drapeau, political editor of the Charente Libre newspaper, describes her as "a mixture of concrete and image", citing her appearance at a presidential party in the Elysée gardens wearing a local farm-girl costume to promote a regional brand of goat's cheese.
Some analysts believe that Ms Royal is treating 2007as a test run for a more serious presidential bid in 2012. Either way, her Les Guignols puppet seems likely to be kept busy for the foreseeable future.
Royal the favourite to reign over left in French politics
By Martin Arnold in Paris
Published: February 2 2006 02:00 | Last updated: February 2 2006 02:00
Ségolène Royal, the rising star of the French Socialist party, is a keen admirer of Tony Blair and could draw on some of the UK prime minister's policies if elected France's first woman president in next year's elections.
Her comments may surprise some people. While Mr Blair is widely admired by Europe's social democrats for reinvigorating the Labour party, that view is not widely held in France where many socialists who would otherwise be aligned with the Blair project see him as a crypto-Thatcherite.
"I think Tony Blair has been caricatured in France. It does not bother me to claim adherence to some of his ideas," Ms Royal told the FT. "He has reinvested in public services. On youth unemployment, he has had real success by using more flexibility but also more security."
"Young graduates are better treated in the UK than in France, so it is not just for tax reasons that so many of our young are leaving France to go and work in the City of London," said Ms Royal, distancing herself from her party's deeply ingrained suspicion of Anglo-Saxon capitalism and Blairism. "We must not be blocked on any issues - like the 35-hour week, for instance," she said.
However, Ms Royal may disappoint any overseas investors hoping she could become the acceptable face of French socialism, as her ideas seem to be equally inspired by late president François Mitterrand, her former political master.
"How can the government cut public sector recruitment while the interior minister is calling for more police in schools, on trains and in the suburbs?"
She is also a critic of the government's labour market reforms, giving small businesses and employers of young people more flexibility by allowing them to fire staff easily in the first two years of a contract. "It is bad. It hits youth and gives them the wrong message by devaluing work," she said.
Although much of her economic and foreign policy ideas are shrouded in mystery, work under way in a small factory in Paris's sleepy 11th arrondissement confirms her celebrity status on the French left.
The creation of a puppet modelled on Ms Royal for the satirical television show Les Guignols (the French equivalent of the UK's Spitting Image) is the latest sign that she has hit the political big time.
Ms Royal is the opinion polls' favourite to be the Socialist party candidate in next year's presidential elections.
Barely a day goes by in France without a debate on television or in the press about whether she is the left's best chance of beating Nicolas Sarkozy, the early presidential favourite on the right, or just a fad who will vanish as quickly as she arrived.
In her Poitiers regional headquarters she exudes a steely confidence, fending off questions about her private life and policies with an icy determination that has made many enemies but also fuels interest in her. "Opinion polls do not make an election," she admitted. "But what people recognise in me is the work I have done here in the region. I am a fighter, I have fought for things, people see that."
The 52-year-old former family minister shot to fame after her victory in the 2004 regional elections for Poitou-Charente, an agricultural region on France's Atlantic coast, striking a humiliating blow against the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin on the former prime minister's home turf.
Since then she has become a symbol of the public's thirst for younger, fresher faces on both sides of the political divide, amid increasing political apathy and disillusionment with the fin de règne atmosphere dogging the government of Jacques Chirac, the 73-year-old president.
Ms Royal has not officially declared herself a presidential candidate. But polls show that 50 per cent of voters think she is the best Socialist party candidate.
Her popularity reflects a leadership vacuum in the party, which is still looking to replace Lionel Jospin, the former prime minister who retired after his stinging election defeat in 2002.
Some of the public fascination stems from the fact that Ms Royal's partner, François Hollande, leader of the Socialist party, is also a potential candidate for the presidency. They met at the elite Ecole Nationale d'Administration and have four children.
Rumours abound about why they are not married and she is suing a local newspaper for erroneously suggesting it was to get around rules against them both sitting in parliament. She played down talk of a wedding: "If we got married now, everyone would say it was manipulation." Ms Royal said they would decide "together as a couple" which of them would run in September, ahead of a ballot of the 130,000 party members in November.
Ms Royal has kept a distance from the Socialist party, irritating the party's militants and its leaders, the so-called elephants.
She showed off this free spirit by visiting Chile last month to support the campaign of Michelle Bachelet in the country's elections, instead of attending the 10-year commemorations of the death of Mitterrand, for whom she worked as a presidential adviser from 1981 to 1988. Such behaviour is winning her few friends in the Socialist party. "But who will look after the kids?" cracked Laurent Fabius, former prime minister.
While such ill-judged sexist attacks have rebounded on the elephants, Ms Royal may be more worried about the mutterings of the party rank and file.
Michelle Sabban, head of women's issues in the Socialist party, complains: "In fights over women's rights, I don't remember Ségolène Royal at our side. I am waiting for substance from her on social, economic and foreign policy."
In Poitou-Charente she has earned a reputation for achievable policies affecting people's everyday lives, such as tokens for free school books, subsidies for water-heating solar panels and subsidised jobs for unemployed youths.
Ivan Drapeau, political editor of the Charente Libre newspaper, describes her as "a mixture of concrete and image", citing her appearance at a presidential party in the Elysée gardens wearing a local farm-girl costume to promote a regional brand of goat's cheese.
Some analysts believe that Ms Royal is treating 2007as a test run for a more serious presidential bid in 2012. Either way, her Les Guignols puppet seems likely to be kept busy for the foreseeable future.