Segolene Royal

By Heraclitus

Segolene Royal, a female Socialist politician, looks set to run for the Socialist nomination for President of France. She is well ahead of her rivals for the nomination, and appears, at this point, to be a good candidate for the national election. This seems interesting to me not only because she would be France's first woman president, but because her election would run counter to the general drift to the right in European politics -- by which I mean not just the rise of nationalist, anti-immigrant parties but the success of parties on the economic right across the continent. She's already faced sexist sniping from within her own party (which only served to make her more popular), and tacky comments in the French press about whether or not she should have worn high heels on a recent trip to a slum in Chile. The BBC profile (the first link above) suggests that being a woman will be a serious obstacle for her to overcome in French politics, but her candidacy seems interesting and worth watching.