The next presidential elections in France will be held (in two rounds) on 22 April and 6 May 2007. This is an important event after 12 years of Chirac, and 14 years of Mitterand. Chirac is not expected to run for a third term, and evn if he did his chances of being reelected are close to nill.
Yesterday, 220,000 members of the French Socialist Party selected Ségolène Royal, a 53-year old mother of four, as their presidential candidate. She will be the main contestant against the favourite candidate of the central-right UMP party, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the current Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin.
Mrs Royal could become the first woman president of France if she is elected - and she certainly has her chances in today's political climate, with a divided right and an increasingly unified left. This would be a big thing in the still rather chauvinistic (in both senses of the term) France.
Yesterday, 220,000 members of the French Socialist Party selected Ségolène Royal, a 53-year old mother of four, as their presidential candidate. She will be the main contestant against the favourite candidate of the central-right UMP party, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the current Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin.
Mrs Royal could become the first woman president of France if she is elected - and she certainly has her chances in today's political climate, with a divided right and an increasingly unified left. This would be a big thing in the still rather chauvinistic (in both senses of the term) France.