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Soft? So they call me soft, eh? ‘Rocky’ Royal comes out fighting-by Charles Bremner
Alone in a floodlit boxing ring, Ségolène Royal wound up her fans like the champ before the final bout. “They call me soft, eh? You know me — that’s not my thing.” The crowd of 4,000 in the sports arena in Tours roared and chanted: “Ségo, Présidente!”
Mr Sarkozy had dared on Wednesday to call Ms Royal soft on crime after she attacked the former Interior Minister for harsh police tactics in a youth riot in the Paris Gare du Nord station.In the final stretch before the first round of the election on April 22, Ms Royal was in Tours on a jaunt through the Loire Valley doing what she does best: preaching her vision of feminine redemption for a nation in crisis. Pugnacious and confident, Ms Royal, 53, is enjoying a lift since she pushed out the Socialist party barons a fortnight ago and reverted to the very personal style that worked magic last year. “Je suis la patronne” — “I am the boss”, she said this week. “I will be responsible for the outcome. I will hold no one else responsible.”
According to a BVA poll yesterday, Ms Royal has pulled almost level with Mr Sarkozy, with 27 per cent voting intentions for the first round. Mr Sarkozy, leader of the Union for a Popular Movement, is at 28 per cent and François Bayrou, the centrist who is Ms Royal’s most immediate threat has fallen to 20.
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