Marie Ségolène Royal finally confirmed this afternoon that she will stand as a candidate for the Socialist Party in the presidential elections in 2007.
Who is this attractive well-spoken woman who might well become France's first woman president?
She was born on 22 September 1953 in Dakar, Senegal, and a graduate (in Political Sciences) of the ENA -- l'École Nationale d'Administration, the green house of all top French politicians, including Chirac -- and her hitherto archrival for election, Nicholas Sarkozy, -- a hard, demanding and ultra-intellectual school for the top brains of the country. Upon graduating, she became a judge or conseiller of an administrative court before joining the staff of President François Mitterrand as a technical adviser.
She served as a député for the Deux-Sèvres département during the years 1988-1992, 1993-1997, and from 2002 until now. She then became the Minister of Environment under Pierre Bérégovoy from 1992 to 1993, but failed in her attempt to be elected mayor of Niort against the incumbent Socialist. When the Left won the 1997 legislative election, she laid claim to the presidency of the National Assembly. But the party reserved it for Laurent Fabius. In compensation, she joined the government of Lionel Jospin as Vice-Minister of Education, then as Vice-Minister of Family and Childhood from 2000 to 2002. On 28 March 2004, she was elected with more than 55% president of the region Poitou-Charentes.
Her partner since the late 1970s is French Socialist Party leader François Hollande, with whom she has four children. While not married, they are bound by the PACS (pacte civil de solidarité), which provides for a civil union between two adults, regardless of gender. In the past, she has mounted campaigns against the exposure of children to violent television shows, including cartoons -- in 1989 she published a book, Le Ras-le-bol des bébés zappeurs, roughly translated as "The Dissatisfaction of the Channel-Flipping Generation", and more generally has stood on several issues regarding family values and the protection of children.
On 22 September 2005 Paris Match published an interview in which she declared that she was considering running for the presidency in 2007. After the government was forced into a humiliating climb-down in the face of youth riots against the CPE (first employment contract) laws, she was tipped as the lead contender in what is dubbed the Sarko-Sego race against Nicolas Sarkozy..
In September 2006 her brother Antoine Royal revealed that another brother, Lieutenant Gerard Royal, was involved in the planting of the bomb that sunk the Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour, New Zealand, on 10 July 1985, killing photographer Fernando Pereira. This had been known for some time however and the New Zealand government announced that there would be no extradition requests since they regarded the case as closed.
Her status as a presidential candidate was seen by some as uncertain until 28 September 2006, when Lionel Jospin announced that he would not be a candidate for the presidency.
She has made a point of speaking up on subjects the French Left usually feels uncomfortable with, most notably juvenile delinquents, going as far as advocating putting young delinquents under a reform regime with a "military dimension", causing a stir within her own party and attacking Nicolas Sarkozy on his own turf. She also hasn't hesitated to criticize some side effects of the 35-hour working week that Lionel Jospin wrote into law when he was Prime Minister.
Read more about the possible future Madame La Presidente de la Republique Francaise and what she stands for.
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