Yesterday Ségolène Royal (SR), socialist candidate in the last French presidential election, explained on a radio show that she never approved several measures (increase of minimal wage [SMIC] to 1,500 euros, extension of 35-hour-week) for which she campaigned during the election.
Now let’s put this in context: In the fall 2006, SR won the socialist primaries by campaigning against her own party, the Socialist Party (PS). In the winter 2007, she set up her own campaign headquarter and staff separate from that of her party. In between the two ballots of the presidential election, in early May, she suggested without consulting her party that centrist leader François Bayrou, of the MoDem, could be her Prime Minister if she got elected. Then again, in between the two ballots of the legislative election a couple of weeks ago, she personally called Bayrou to ask for his support while her own party was rejecting any potential alliance with the MoDem. On the night of the second ballot of the legislative election, SR announced that her partner, PS first secretary François Hollande, and she were separating. The news overshadowed the small gains of the PS at the National Assembly. The next day, she announced that she would run to replace her former partner as first secretary of the PS, thereby suggesting that in spite of all her differences of opinion she wanted to lead the organization. And, finally, came yesterday’s news about her not believing in the measures for which she campaigned.
I really would like to understand what is SR’s strategy. She keeps saying that politicians have to restore trust in politics and public institutions. I don’t see how her zig-zags and opportunism will contribute to this goal. She confirms instead the common suspicion that politicians are simply driven by personal ambition and interests. SR complained that during the campaign she “suffered from a deficit of political clarification.” Perhaps she should just join the MoDem and let the socialists pick up the pieces and reconstruct their party. At least it would be a step toward a clarification.
According to some American journalists, something like this would not have happened in the United States, or at least not in the same way, simply because journalists would have looked into the personal life of SR so early in the campaign that she would have had to clarify several things, beginning with the status of her relationship with François Hollande. So a lack of consideration for private life would have allegedly helped democracy…
