Ségolène Royal wins Socialist nomination

By Heraclitus

Ségolène Royal has won the Socialist nomination for president in France. Here's a brief profile I wrote about her a few weeks ago, which has since been translated into French and posted on the website of Reporters Without Borders (although Michael has tried to claim credit for it). As I said in the earlier post, her candidacy seems to me to be important because she may become the first female president of France and, perhaps more importantly, because a win by a Socialist in the French presidential election will, at the very least, be an exception to the movement towards the economic and social right seen in so many recent European elections. The Guardian has more.

**********

For more on Ségolène Royal, see the profiles at BBC and The Economist, her entry at Wikipedia, her official page at the French National Assembly, and her official campaign website for the 2007 presidential election. -- MJWS