FRANCE:Ten days after she won more than 60 per cent of the vote in a Socialist Party primary, Ségolène Royal was yesterday formally invested as the party's candidate for next spring's presidential election.
Ms Royal's supporters called the ceremony a "consecration" or "republican coronation". Behind a transparent lectern on a runway reaching into the audience, against a bright pink backdrop emblazoned with the slogan "Succeed at Change", Ms Royal was interrupted by chants of "Ségolène Présidente" and several standing ovations.
Her speech emphasised unity on the left and greater justice in French society.
"Dear friends, dear comrades," Ms Royal began. "Today we are writing together a beautiful page in the history of France. A new hope has risen on the left, like a wave taking shape. Through will and courage, we will seek out all those who feel cast aside and who fear tomorrow. Help me to find this path. Help me to build this renewal."
Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Laurent Fabius, who stood against Ms Royal in the primary, sat in the front row. They, like former prime minister Lionel Jospin - who did not attend the ceremony - have since rallied to Royal's campaign.
"I need everyone, all the talents of all the socialists," Ms Royal said, addressing her former rivals for the first time since the primary. "This victory is the victory of all the socialists."
Ms Royal used the oft-repeated slogans of her campaign: the promise to unite the French "in a shared desire for the future" and the Mao-like exhortation to "climb the mountain until victory". The socialist candidate said it was important to "resist the ill wind of lawless liberalism and at the same time seize the opportunities of globalisation, which carries within it the best and the worst."
If elected, Ms Royal has promised her first act will be to ask parliament to enact a law against violence against women.
"There is a strong correlation between the status of a woman and the state of justice or injustice in a country," she said. "By choosing a woman to lead the battle of ideas and to embody hope, you have accomplished a truly revolutionary gesture.
"If you do what I propose, I will lead you to victory."
Luc Chatel, spokesman for the right-wing UMP whose leader, Nicolas Sarkozy, is the other leading presidential candidate, denounced "the stunning emptiness" of Ms Royal's speech, calling her the "candidate of the big blur".
Referring to Ms Royal's reputation for not taking a clear stand on important issues, academician Jean d'Ormesson called her "the Madonna of the unsaid" in an article in the right-wing Le Figaro newspaper.
The right should learn from the socialists and rally around Mr Sarkozy, the only candidate capable of beating Ms Royal, Mr d'Ormesson said.
Mr Sarkozy, who is expected to formally announce his candidacy for the presidency this week, has been undermined by the animosity of President Jacques Chirac, prime minister Dominique de Villepin and defence minister Michèle Alliot-Marie.
François Hollande, the socialist party leader and Ms Royal's companion for the past 25 years, briefly shared the stage with her yesterday. "Without François, none of this would have been possible," she said.
Mr Hollande refused to take sides during the primary campaign. His duty "is not to favour Ségolène Royal because she is the mother of my four children, which would be politics based on family," he said last night.
Yet knowing that his companion may become the first woman president of France was nonetheless a singular experience. "I said to myself, this is a very special day," Mr Hollande admitted. "I said to myself, sometimes destiny takes over . . . a historic occasion takes hold of you. That was what happened to Ségolène today."