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Royal hopes to undo mother of bad weeks with TV triumph
Ségolène Royal is hoping her appearance on a prime-time TV show on Monday night will win over a sceptical French public after a week of campaign traumas including an economic adviser's resignation, lacklustre poll ratings and children booing her at a sports ground."Maman Ségo," the first woman with a chance of becoming president of France, was supposed to have spent this week basking in glory after setting out her socialist programme to protect the nation's poor and vulnerable in the face of her rightwing opponent Nicolas Sarkozy's plans for tax cuts and free market economic reform. But Ms Royal, a mother of four who has styled herself as the mother of the nation, instead faced polls showing Mr Sarkozy stretching his 6-8% lead. The French left as a whole is now at its lowest popularity rating since 1969 as parties struggle to capitalise on a feeling of malaise after 12 years under Jacques Chirac. Nine weeks before the first round of the presidential election, the Socialist party's bickering and infighting saw its chief economic strategist, Eric Besson, storm out of Ms Royal's campaign on Wednesday. Others have since rushed to the press with anonymous complaints about the shambles of her team, ensconced in its own headquarters decorated with fresh flowers, butterflies and designer furniture. "Their amateurism makes me despair," one party official told the daily Libération. Another warned Le Monde of a "depressing" downward spiral. Ms Royal's image is now staked on her performance on a TV show on Monday night which political pollsters say is as important as her rallying speech last weekend. The two-hour live political show I've Got A Question to Ask You invites the public to put questions to candidates. Ms Royal's camp said she was comfortable talking "directly" to "the people". Others are worried it could turn into a kind of Mastermind in which people fire complicated general knowledge tests at Ms Royal to trip her up. She has made a series of foreign policy gaffes and recently could not give the size of France's nuclear submarine fleet. Ms Royal must also aim for ratings as high as Mr Sarkozy, who had 8.2 million viewers on the show. The Royal camp yesterday played down the resignation of Mr Besson, the party's national secretary on economy and taxation and author of a recent report branding Mr Sarkozy, an American-style neo-conservative. He left after costing Ms Royal's programme at 35bn (£24m) while her team sought to avoid public debate over figures. "Everyone must show a bit of discipline," Ms Royal said. Her motherly image was weakened when children booed her as she visited a training ground of the French rugby side. Her minders said the children were merely angry at being kept off the pitch by rain. Ms Royal sparked a new policy row with Mr Sarkozy yesterday by saying she would rather invest more money in education than go ahead with a proposal to build a second aircraft carrier for France. Mr Sarkozy, campaigning on the Indian ocean island of La Réunion, questioned how Ms Royal could "rally" France if she couldn't rally her own party behind her. Commentators warn that an unconvincing campaign could bring a repeat of 2002 when the Socialists' Lionel Jospin was knocked out at the first round by the far-right's Jean-Marie Le Pen. Ms Royal is well above Mr Jospin's poll ratings as at this stage of the 2002 election but faces a new challenge as the centrist candidate François Bayrou advances in the polls. Posted by: ryuge 2007-02-17 |
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