Controversial French politician Ségolène Royal is back stirring up the socialists, writes Lara Marlowein Paris
SÉGOLÈNE ROYAL wants to lead the French Socialist Party (PS), she admitted on television on Wednesday night.
The woman who lost the presidency to Nicolas Sarkozy last year "feels capable" of taking over the country's main opposition party. But does the PS want her? Two months ago, when the contest started to get nasty, Royal announced she was putting her candidacy "in the fridge".
This week, she played coy, promising to give her answer at the three-day party congress which starts in Reims today.
In a preliminary vote by party members on six "motions" or manifestos put forward by socialist factions on November 4th, Royal won the highest score of 29 per cent.
But, as her detractors were quick to point out, 71 per cent of the party voted against her.
Two other events have brought Royal back into the public eye.
Last month, she held a one-woman-show rally at the Zénith auditorium, where she pranced around the stage in jeans and a peasant top, clutching a microphone and chanting: "Fra-ter-ni-té!"
Sylviane Agacinski, wife of former socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin, cuttingly suggested: "It would be better for everyone if [Royal] made a career in show business."
Royal's November 4th success coincided with a story that gossip magazines and foreign newspapers love, but "responsible" French media ignore. A year and a half after she and outgoing socialist leader Francois Hollande split up over his affair with a Paris Match journalist, Royal (55) has a boyfriend: Bruno Gaccio (50).
The brain behind the highly successful televised satirical puppet show Les Guignols de l'info, Gaccio provided media advice during Royal's presidential campaign.
Royal has made it clear she intends to stand for president again in 2012.
Writing about herself in a political confession, she said she would "need the support of a whole party and a companion who is completely in love". She may have found the companion. Now she wants the party.
In the run-up to the congress, Royal reversed her old strategy of ignoring PS rivals. She sent letters to her competitors, addressing each as "Dear Comrade" and attempting to smooth over ideological differences. She met Bertrand Delanoe, the gay mayor of Paris who has accused her of wanting to turn the party into a personal fan club, and who came in four points behind her.
Royal telephoned Martine Aubry, the mayor of Lille and the third runner-up, who won 24 per cent. Animosity between the two women has run particularly deep since the plain, matronly Aubry revealed her jealousy of Royal by saying the presidential campaign "is not a beauty contest".
The fourth socialist contender, Benoit Hamon, the leader of the most left-wing faction who won only 19 per cent, says he and Aubry are close to concluding an alliance against Royal. They suspect that Royal would again seek an alliance with Francois Bayrou's centrist party, MoDem. The plotting enables Royal to portray her "comrades" as ganging up on poor little Ségolène.
The congress promises to be one of those mudfights at which the PS excells. Royal should remember the words of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the left-wing senator who resigned in disgust when she won, on the grounds it proved the PS has become a centre-left party. "I have some advice for [Royal]," he said. "In a basketful of crabs, don't trust anyone!"
This ought to be a propitious time for the PS. The economic crisis has made a mockery of Sarkozy's promises to cut taxes, pare down the state and incite the French to work more. But the PS has lost the last three presidential elections, and prospects for unity have never looked bleaker.
"The situation is grave, because parties can disappear," warned former socialist minister Elisabeth Guigou.
"We have to be careful to avoid a phoney consensus or a head-on collision," said another former minister, Pierre Moscovici. "The party is fragile."
However messily the party congress ends on Sunday, the socialists' new leader will be chosen in a vote by party members on November 20th. Royal has led two such polls in two years, and has a reasonable chance of winning.