Politicians stealing into limelight

PARIS – While top French male politicians have been busy jostling for position ahead of the next year’s presidential polls, the country’s leading women politicians have been quietly moving to the forefront.

France has had a female prime minister – Edith Cresson resigned after less than a year in 1992 – but never a woman president. The emergence of two potential candidates from both main parties has the nation asking: could the next head of state be “Madame le President”.Both regional leader Segolene Royal, a Socialist, and conservative Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, have yet to outline their programmes.But their understated styles and unflappable natures contrast and offer voters a feminine alternative.”I think that the moment for women has arrived.Not for women but simply for the harmony of life,” Royal, head of a regional authority, said on TF1 television on Thursday.Royal, an elegant and photogenic 52-year-old, has steamed past male colleagues including her partner Francois Hollande, the socialist leader, to become the favourite leftwing figure.She currently features on the cover of four weekly magazines and a poll on Thursday showed 41 per cent of Socialists would pick her as their candidate over former prime minister Lionel Jospin, the second most popular with just 21 per cent.In disarray since its crushing defeat in the 2002 presidential elections, the Socialists’ problems were exacerbated by a damaging split last year over the referendum on the European Union constitution.Royal is vulnerable to criticism that she has not said how she would solve France’s pressing problems.And while she has held ministerial office, she lacks experience on heavyweight national issues such as the economy and foreign policy.But her novelty is her prime political asset.”I think she’s the only one who can transcend the traditional political divisions because she represents a modern image, a real freshness,” Gerard Collomb, the Socialist mayor of Lyon, told the daily Le Monde newspaper.Even some rivals agree.”Segolene Royal is benefiting from exaggerated personal battles at the heart of the Socialist Party.Socialist voters think the male personalities only think about their own careers,” Alliot-Marie told La Provence daily newspaper.”It’s true that there hasn’t been a new idea from the Socialists in four years, not an embryo of an electoral programme.They are so exasperated they are being driven to look for another solution that, in their eyes, might be a woman.”- Nampa-ReutersThe emergence of two potential candidates from both main parties has the nation asking: could the next head of state be “Madame le President”.Both regional leader Segolene Royal, a Socialist, and conservative Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, have yet to outline their programmes.But their understated styles and unflappable natures contrast and offer voters a feminine alternative.”I think that the moment for women has arrived.Not for women but simply for the harmony of life,” Royal, head of a regional authority, said on TF1 television on Thursday.Royal, an elegant and photogenic 52-year-old, has steamed past male colleagues including her partner Francois Hollande, the socialist leader, to become the favourite leftwing figure.She currently features on the cover of four weekly magazines and a poll on Thursday showed 41 per cent of Socialists would pick her as their candidate over former prime minister Lionel Jospin, the second most popular with just 21 per cent.In disarray since its crushing defeat in the 2002 presidential elections, the Socialists’ problems were exacerbated by a damaging split last year over the referendum on the European Union constitution.Royal is vulnerable to criticism that she has not said how she would solve France’s pressing problems.And while she has held ministerial office, she lacks experience on heavyweight national issues such as the economy and foreign policy.But her novelty is her prime political asset.”I think she’s the only one who can transcend the traditional political divisions because she represents a modern image, a real freshness,” Gerard Collomb, the Socialist mayor of Lyon, told the daily Le Monde newspaper.Even some rivals agree.”Segolene Royal is benefiting from exaggerated personal battles at the heart of the Socialist Party.Socialist voters think the male personalities only think about their own careers,” Alliot-Marie told La Provence daily newspaper.”It’s true that there hasn’t been a new idea from the Socialists in four years, not an embryo of an electoral programme.They are so exasperated they are being driven to look for another solution that, in their eyes, might be a woman.”- Nampa-Reuters