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French politics gets Royal treatmentBy Margaux Chouraqui-Meunier for CNN  Socialist candidate in next year's French presidential elections, Segolene Royal. YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- There is still a year to go until the votes are cast in the next French presidential elections, yet Segolene Royal of the Socialist party already looks like a rising star within the traditionally male-dominated political elite. With the ruling conservatives facing declining support as a result of the failure of the EU constitution and the "Banlieue Crisis" -- which has seen outbreaks of rioting in the suburbs of Paris -- polls put Royal way ahead of her socialist and conservative rivals. Germany, Chile and Liberia recently elected female heads of state, but in France Royal would be the first, and she claims to still face sexist criticism from many of her male counterparts. Political opponents point to her lack of experience, saying she has only served in "women's jobs" in the ministries of environment, education and family. Laurent Fabius, also competing to be the Socialist candidate, once asked of her: "Who will look after the children?" Nonetheless, in a poll published by the French political magazine "L'Express" in May 2006, the main reason French voters said they would favor Royal is because she is a woman. Royal also believes her compatriots are sick of an "old guard" culture. In May 2006 she told the New York Times, "with diminishing electoral turnouts and far right popularity among the symptoms of a growing national dissatisfaction." Although a graduate of the Grandes Ecoles -- which has produced many of France's most distinguished politicians, past and present -- Royal has deliberately distanced herself from the established socialist elite. Instead she prefers to identify herself with ordinary French voters via a popular Web site campaign where users can contribute their thoughts on relevant issues. Mariette Sineau of the Research center for French political life (Cevipof), told CNN that "she succeeds to develop a more modern image of French politicians in step with the strong desire among the electorate for a change of the political mentality and practices of their leaders." Royal has also broken from her own party ranks by speaking out on issues with which the French left usually feels uncomfortable, most notably on juvenile delinquency, a subject which she used to launch a direct attack on Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, her presumed conservative rival. Indeed, her proposal to use military camps to train young offenders while freezing welfare payments to their parents was rebuked by Francois Hollande, first secretary of the Socialist party, Royal's partner since 1978 and the father of her four children. Pierre Giacometti, CEO of Ipsos, a French polling institute, says the proposal "created a major divide" within the Socialist party. Interestingly, polls show French public support for the policy yet they still see Royal as less credible than Sarkozy. Royal has also broken from the party mainstream by criticizing the 35 hour week, a policy which has been a benchmark of the Socialist Party platform for the past six years. In reaction, JC Cambadelis, a left-wing politician, asked whether Royal wanted to be the candidate for the socialists or against them. Her critics have also attacked what they see as her failure to outline a platform on the big questions facing France -- the economy, Europe, and foreign affairs -- with Royal biographer Daniel Bernard writing that not even her parliamentary colleagues knew how she felt on those issues. Royal's first public statement on foreign policy came in an interview with "Le Monde" newspaper last June when she stated she wanted parliament to be more involved in foreign affairs in order to make policy-making more democratic. She added that Europe needed a more robust social orientation to solve mass unemployment and reasserted the centrality of state intervention in the face of increasing globalization. On immigration, currently the hottest topic in French political circles, she accused the current government of trying to curtail highly skilled immigration and emphasized the need for a stronger hand on illegal traffickers. Even though her adversaries continue to criticize her lack of coherent policies, few doubt that Royal's rapid rise reflects a significant change in French politics. 
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