Segolene Royal - a fresh breeze in politically stale FranceFor the complete report from the International Herald Tribune click on this link
Unusual for France, Segolene Royal pins presidential run on her regional accomplishments
Socialist Segolene Royal began her campaign to become France's first woman president in this bucolic region of Cognac vineyards and farm fields, trying out policies like free birth control pills for schoolgirls and opposition to outsourcing jobs. For three years, she has been president of the Poitou-Charentes region on France's western edge, a post roughly equivalent to a governorship. Unusually for France, she has used her regional success to promote herself on the national level, glossing over her big weak point: a lack of experience with top posts in the central government that are the traditional hallmarks of the country's leading politicians.
Poitou-Charentes, with 1.7 million people, is often called Royal's "laboratory," a place where she has tested ideas locally to see if they could work across France, should she win the two-round presidential vote in late April and early May.
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